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 PRINCETON, N. J. 4f^ 
 
 BX 957 .B7 1883 
 
 Brock, Mourant, 1802-1856. 
 
 Rome: pagan and papal 
 
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 S/ifl/.. 
 

ROME: PAGAN AND PAPAL. 
 

 Regina Saba, Queen of Sheba {From a cut in the " Nuretnburg Chronicle.") 
 
 'A 
 
ROME: PAGAN AND PAPAL. 
 
 MOURANT^BROCK, M.A, 
 
 Formerly huumlent of Christ Cluirck, Clifton. 
 A itthor of 
 The Cross : Heathen and Christian," " Short Chapters on tlie Sacraments," etc. 
 
 " He being dead, yet speaketh." 
 
 HODDER AND STOUGHTON 
 27, PATERNOSTER ROW. 
 
 MDCCCLXXXIII. 
 
 \.All rights reserved,] 
 
Hazell, Watson, and Viney, Printers, London and Aylesburj'. 
 
I .HEC. NOV IBbii 
 
 ■ THSOLOGI^ 
 
 PREFACE, 
 
 TTOR many years, both at home and while sojourning 
 ''- in other lands, I have been much interested in 
 observing the various religions of the world, and in 
 collecting such information respecting their traditions, 
 ritual, and usages, as would enable me to comp arethem. 
 And my intention was that, if it pleased God to grant 
 me health, I would, after retirement from clerical duties, 
 digest my miscellaneous papers, and shape them into 
 a book. 
 
 But this was not to be : health failed, and my purpose 
 was postponed from year to year. Last autumn, how- 
 ever, finding that a few of the papers which appeared 
 in the Rock had met with much acceptance, I thought 
 it might, perhaps, be well to revise and republish these 
 together with some others. But feebleness of body 
 again interposed, and rendered me quite unable to 
 decide the question. So I called upon my friend Mr. 
 Pember — author of " EartJis Earliest Ages',' and " The 
 Great Prophecies" — with a bundle of MS. in my hand, 
 and asked his opinion. He replied that the MS. con- 
 
vi PREFACE. 
 
 tained much interesting information of a kind likely to 
 be valuable at the present time. 
 
 This answer determined me ; and when I further told 
 him how unfit I felt to undertake the completion of my 
 own work, he kindly consented to help me by digesting 
 and revising the papers, verifying those extracts which 
 were within the range of his library, and seeing the book 
 through the press. 
 
 For the cuts of the Council of Florence, taken from 
 the Bronze Gates of St. Peter's, I am indebted to the 
 courtesy of the family of the late Rev. W. B. Marriott. 
 
 I have also to thank Dr. Lewis of Berkeley Square, 
 Bristol, for the loan of many curious books from which I 
 have culled much interesting matter. 
 
 Nor must I forget many other friends and acquaint- 
 ances, who have most kindly helped me, either by 
 gathering or .copying notes, and to whom I beg to tender 
 my grateful thanks. 
 
 MOURANT BROCK. 
 Clifton, Juue, 1883. 
 
 A few days after he had written his preface, the 
 venerable author was called into the presence of Him 
 who turneth the shadow of death into the morning. 
 
 He had requested that he might be spared to bring 
 out a second edition of his useful " SJiort Chapters on the 
 Sacraments" and his petition was granted, so that he 
 
PREFACE. vu 
 
 was enabled to send copies of that work to some of his 
 friends on his eighty-first birthday. 
 
 He had conceived a dread of lingering illness, and 
 was wont to pray that, if such were the will of God, it 
 might not fall to his lot. This desire also was remem- 
 bered by his gracious Lord, 
 
 On Friday, June 29th, he retired to rest in his usual 
 condition, but became ill in the night, and, after an 
 hour's laborious breathing, the command went forth — 
 " Loose him, and let him go ! " 
 
 A gentle calm stole over his face, he gasped out the 
 words, " Old things are passed away ; behold, all things 
 are become new," and quitted the sick chamber for 
 the Paradise of God so quietly that his sorrowing family 
 scarce knew the moment of his departure. 
 
 "Yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their 
 labours; and their works do follow them." 
 
 G. H. P. 
 
CONTENTS, 
 
 CHAP. PAGE 
 
 I. THE TWO CITIES .1 
 
 II. THE RELATION OF PAGANISM TO THE ROMAN 
 
 CHURCH 8 
 
 III. THE EARLY CHURCH (PART I.) . . . . I4 
 
 IV. THE EARLY CHURCH (PART II.) . . . ■ ^9 
 V. THE COMPROMISING SPIRIT OF THE EARLY CHURCH 25 
 
 VI. FURTHER EVIDENCE TO THE COMPROMISING SPIRIT 
 
 OF THE EARLY CHURCH . . . .28 
 
 VII. THE DARK AGES 35 
 
 VIII. A DEVICE OF MAN FOR HIS OWN SALVATION. . 4I 
 
 IX. CELIBATES AND SOLITARIES 49 
 
 X. MONKS AND MONASTERIES . . . . • 55 
 
 XI. THE SUPERSTITION AND IMMORALITY OF MEDI/E- 
 
 VALISM ........ 64 
 
 XII. CHARMS AS USED IN THE PAGAN WORLD (PART I.) 72 
 
 XIII. CHARMS AS USED IN THE PAGAN WORLD (PART II.) 78 
 
 XIV. CHARMS IN THE CHURCH OF ROME (PART I.) . 86 
 
 XV. CHARMS IN THE CHURCH OF ROME {PART II.) . 90 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAP. p^^g 
 
 XVI. CHARMS IN THE CHURCH OF ROME (PART III.), 97 
 XVII. THE CONSECRATION OF HOLY FIRE AND HOLY 
 
 WATER . . . . . . , .10^ 
 
 XVIII. THE FEAST OF THE PURIFICATION, OR CANDLEMAS IIO 
 
 XIX. THE IMAGES OF THE GODS . . . ,114 
 
 XX. THE IMAGE OF ST. PETER AT ROME . . .121 
 
 XXI. THE ADORATION OF IMAGES BY KISSING , -125 
 
 XXII. THE CLOTHING OF IMAGES 
 
 XXIII. THE MOTHER AND CHILD 
 
 130 
 
 141 
 
 149 
 
 159 
 164 
 
 XXIV. VOTIVE OFFERINGS . 
 XXV. THE NIMBUS 
 XXVI. MARKS OF THE GODS 
 XXVII. HOLY PLACES . 
 XXVIII. MODERN PILGRIMS . 
 XXIX. BLEEDING KNEES 
 XXX. ST. GEORGE AND THE DRAGON . . . .167 
 
 XXXI. POPE JOAN jy^ 
 
 XXXII. THE ELECTION OF A POPE . , . .187 
 
 XXXIII. ECCLESIASTICAL PAINTING : ITS SENSUOUSNESS 
 
 AND PAGAN CHARACTER . . . • 194 
 
 XXXIV. ECCLESIASTICAL SCULPTURE : ITS SENSUOUSNESS 
 
 AND PAGAN CHARACTER . . . .198 
 
 XXXV. THE BRONZE GATES OF ST. PETER's . . . 204 
 
 XXXVI. THE SHRINE OF ST. ANTHONY OF PADUA . .2 12 
 
 XXXVIl. THE BURLESQUE SIDE OF SUPERSTITION . -217 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 XI 
 
 CHAP. PAGE 
 
 XXXVIII. ORVIETO AND TRANSUBSTANTIATION. . .223 
 
 XXXIX. THE CATHEDRAL OF ORVIETO (PART I.) . . 228 
 
 XL. THE CATHEDRAL OF ORVIETO (PART II.) . . 234 
 
 XLI. THE CATHEDRAL OF ORVIETO (PART III.) . . 244 
 
 XLII. BOLSENA 248 
 
 XLIII. BRIGANDAGE ....... 253 
 
 XLIV. THE PERSECUTING SPIRIT OF ROME . . , 262 
 
 XLV. MODERN JESUITISM .... . 266 
 
 XLVI. CONCLUSION 269 
 

 f 
 
 I. 
 
 THE TWO CITIES. 
 
 IN Southern Italy there are two cities hard by each other : 
 the one teeming with hfe, the other a city of the dead. 
 
 These cities are Naples and Pompeii. The latter, accident 
 ally discovered after an entombment of nearly seventeen 
 centuries, began to be disinterred from thfe debris with which 
 Vesuvius had overwhelmed it. This consisted, not of streams 
 of lava, such as those beneath which Herculaneum was buried, 
 but of ashes and pumice stone, intermingled with mud and 
 water. By its removal an astonishing spectacle was presented 
 to the modern world, a complete specimen of ancient civiliza- 
 tion, with its arts, habits, and domestic arrangements, all laid 
 bare to view ; nay, even the very forms and features of some 
 of the inhabitants of the overwhelmed city. 
 
 How, you will perhaps say, is the latter possible? Italian 
 skill has cleverly solved the difficulty. 
 
 The volcanic ashes in which a human body was buried, 
 were so delicately pressed upon every part of it by the water, 
 which was also ejected from the mountain, that the form, 
 whether male or female, was perfectly moulded. In process 
 of time the body decomposed, but the impression upon the 
 ashes which clasped the vanished form was still left. 
 
 Now mark the artist's skill. Professor Fiorelli — honoured 
 
 be his name — has found a mould, and, see ! he makes openings 
 
 into the cavity, and pours in plaster of Paris, so as to fill 
 
 it completely. He digs out the figure, now become solid ; 
 
 .^ I 
 
2 ROME: PAGAN AND PAPAL. 
 
 he brushes off the ashes adhering to it ; and lo ! there comes 
 forth from the ground a Pompeian man, matron or maid, 
 horse or dog, an exact facsimile, whichever it may be, of its 
 original. 
 
 The remains of the buried city disclose the fact that the 
 habits of the ancient Roman differed but little from those 
 of the modern Italian. 
 
 To this effect Professor J. J. Blunt, a most competent autho- 
 rity, in the third chapter of his Vestiges of AncieJit Manners 
 (Murray, 182S), writes as follows: — "From the discovery of 
 Pompeii many connecting links between ancient and modern 
 times may now be accurately traced. The same features 
 present themselves in the general view of Pompeii as those of 
 a modern Italian town. It exhibits indications, too, of the 
 same gregarious habits as are still conspicuous. The ancient, 
 like the modern, inhabitants of Italy ever preferred town to 
 country life. The splendour of their sacrifices, the amusements 
 of the Theatre, the Circus, the Baths, etc., have been succeeded 
 by a magnificent Mass, the Opera, the Caft^s, the Piazza, and the 
 Corso. . . . Lapse of time, and the glories of history, have 
 almost persuaded us that such men as the ancient Romans 
 could not have thought, acted, and spoken like beings of this 
 nether world. By a nearer acquaintance, however, the spell is 
 broken, and the more that acquaintance is increased the more, 
 I am convinced, shall we find that they resembled their 
 present descendants." 
 
 We shall be able to test the truth of these remarks as we 
 proceed, and shall see that in many points, and especially in 
 matters of religion, the Italy of the present does indeed sur- 
 prisingly resemble the Italy of the past. Let us illustrate this 
 from what has been, and is daily being, disclosed in Pompeii, 
 instancing some of the ordinary habits and usages of society. 
 
 An Englishman going for the first time to Naples, or indeed 
 \o any town of Italy, is surprised to find that, contrary to the 
 
THE TWO CITIES. 3 
 
 custom of his own country, the grandest houses are built in 
 the form of a square, with a garden and fountain in the centre \ 
 and that the ground floor and entrance to these mansions are 
 occupied by shops, the best rooms being always upstairs. If 
 he seeks the prototype of these modern dwellings, he will find 
 it in the old Roman residences, and among them are those of 
 Pompeii, where shops fronting the street are found in the 
 basement story, and where the inner square with the little 
 garden and fountain belonging to the dwelling, are the 
 almost invariable rule. 
 
 These fountains are usually, as in Naples and other modern 
 Italian towns, either jets or little cascades, to serve which 
 there are leaden supply pipes, with cocks and the usual modern 
 appliances. On these ancient pipes, too, may be seen, as 
 now-a-days, the stamp marked with the plumber's name. 
 
 This correspondence of ancient with modern usage may be 
 found also, in the Museum at Nismes, on a leaden pipe fished 
 out of the Rhone, which in times of yore conveyed water 
 through the river from a much esteemed fountain for the use 
 of the dwellers on the opposite bank. In the Museum at 
 Bath, too, there is a piece of a Roman leaden pipe similarly 
 stamped. 
 
 No glowing fire])lace cheered the occupants of a Pompeian 
 saloon — poor enough truly is the modern Italian wood-fire — 
 but in place of this northern comfort stood a brazier for 
 charcoal. This is still the case in Naples, and in those towns 
 of Italy where the English, and other northern visitors, have 
 not yet taught the natives the use of fireplaces. Formerly 
 nothing would have been found anywhere but these braziers 
 and the miserable scaldinos, or open earthern pots of heated 
 charcoal. I have even seen, at Pistoja in Tuscany, a bed 
 heated with a scaldino. It was in the next room to mine, so I 
 went to witness the operation. 
 
 The Pope's Swiss Guard, in their noble guard-room at the 
 
4 ROME: PAGAN AND PAPAL. 
 
 Vatican, keep themselves warm by standing round a great 
 open brazen vessel filled with live charcoal. As I contem- 
 plated them, I thought of Simon Peter, at the palace of the 
 High Priest in Jerusalem, standing with the guard, and 
 " warming himself," probably, at just the same kind of fire, the 
 " fire of coals " — i.e., charcoal — of the New Testament. 
 
 One may also see in Pompeii the shop-signs so common in 
 modern towns. For example, the figure of a goat, or of a 
 cow, to indicate the sale of milk ; and so also the signs of 
 various trades. Among them is a pictorial advertisement of a 
 schoolmaster, found also at Herculaneum. Here you have it, 
 reader. 
 
 y^micisv^ 
 
 And characteristic of the calling it certainly is, showing that 
 pedagogues two thousand years ago were just as fond of 
 torturing boys with the birch as they used to be in our own 
 country in my boyish days. It made me twist as I looked 
 at it, and thought of the petty tyrant who ground me with 
 oppression in tender childhood. Not that I would be under- 
 stood to imply that boys never require the rod. No doubt 
 they do sometimes, and it would be a good thing if our 
 magistrates could see that occasionally men do also. 
 
 At Siena, again, in the noble Piccolomini library adjoining 
 the cathedral, there is, in one of the many illuminated choir 
 books, an illustration of the same disagreeable subject. 
 
 As one walks along the deserted streets of Pompeii, the eye 
 
THE TWO CITIES. 5 
 
 is arrested by notices of municipal elections, with the names of 
 the different candidates, which may still be seen upon the walls, 
 where also the titles of the several guilds are yet to be read. 
 Italy, always famous for its fraternities, received them from 
 ancient Rome. For Sir W. Gell, in one of his charming 
 volumes on Pompeii, says : — " In this street was an inscription 
 of the Fruitsellers ; and it seems that there must have been a 
 fraternity of almost every trade or profession." 
 
 Among these he mentions the corporations of Goldsmiths, 
 Fishmongers, Woodmen, Carmen, Porters, Muleteers, etc. 
 
 Inscriptions, too, of a different kind may be seen upon the 
 walls — scribbles, lampoons, personalities, scurrilities, and others 
 of a still more objectionable character. Blackguards then, as 
 blackguards now ! 
 
 We have already noticed the similarity of medieval shops 
 in Italy to those of the ancient Romans at Pompeii. In the 
 towns of the Riviera of Nice such shops are still to be seen 
 — stone counters and shutters, with an entire absence of glass 
 For example, there are several of them in the old town of 
 Mentone, in the " Rue Longue." 
 
 It is just the same with the kitchens. The Continental 
 
 Stove in kitchen of Pansa's house. 
 
 kitchen of the South is the kitchen of Pompeii, and it helps us 
 to discover the kind of cooking which furnished Roman dinners 
 — those of Lucullus for instance. For the old Roman, like the 
 modern Italian, had the range of low arches supporting little 
 hollow squares, for charcoal fires, uj)on which were fitted iron 
 gratings for the stewpans. There you see the various utensils 
 
6 ROME: PAGAN AND PAPAL. 
 
 of the culinary art, much the same as those in present use. 
 There, too, stand the jars, large and small, as conspicuously as 
 in the kitchens of modern Italy or of the East, their great size 
 frequently putting one in mind of Hadji Baba and the Forty 
 Thieves. 
 
 An interesting instance of old Roman economy struck me in 
 connection with these earthen amphorae. I found that one or 
 two of them, having been cracked, were stitched in several 
 places with wire. And good the mending has proved to be, to 
 have lasted, as it has done, through the best part of two thou- 
 sand years. I have seen the same thing at Nismes, and with 
 as enduring a result, in some similar Roman pottery. 
 
 But the Italians do not merely follow the Romans in the 
 method of cooking their food, — the food itself is of the same 
 character as that of their predecessors : and to this fact the 
 discoveries at Pompeii give ample testimony. One of the 
 disinterred streets has been named " The Street of Fruits," 
 from the stores of fruits which were found in it. Figs, raisins, 
 chestnuts, plums, fruit in glass bottles — think of that, English 
 housewives ! — oil, lentils, hempseed, etc. : all these have come 
 to light in abundance. Bread, too, has been found, and 
 various other things, such as money, scales, and moulds for 
 pastry. And quite recently the tablets of a Pompeian gentle- 
 man, containing his private accounts, have been added to this 
 curious list. In the Pompeian pictures, again, the old Roman 
 taste is represented by sausages, hams, onions, garlic, and other 
 savoury viands. In the Museum, one of the most curious 
 relics of edible antiquity is some honey in the comb. With 
 great interest I looked upon it — honey eighteen hundred years 
 old! 
 
 The ancient Romans began their dinner with oysters : modern 
 Europe has copied their example. As to sausages, they 
 delighted in them ; and let the shops of Naples or modern 
 Rome testify how truly the Italian people prove their descent 
 
THE TWO CITIES. 7 
 
 in this point. Only see them, reader, on the eve of Good 
 P>iday — that is the best time, and the place the Piazza Navona 
 at Rome, or near the Pantheon ; for in those localities the shops 
 of the Pizzicaruoli, or porksellers, are to be found. A season 
 of fasting it is, to be sure ; but those sausage-shops do not look 
 like it, splendidly illuminated as they are, and with their 
 savoury and abounding goods arranged in varied and fantastic 
 devices. Did one ever see such festoons of sausages as in 
 modern Rome ? But where are the pigs fed ? 
 
 Oxford, the savour of thy sausages — how did it excite my 
 undergraduate breakfast sensibilities ! But the sausages of 
 Imperial Rome : must not they have been, and still be, sublime ? 
 Perhaps ; but I like the Oxford ones better. 
 
 Water tap from Pompeii. 
 
II. 
 
 THE RELATION OF PAGANISM TO THE ROMAN 
 CHURCH. 
 
 IN the former chapter we iUustrated the striking similarity of 
 the secular arrangements and usages of modern Italy to 
 those of the ancient Romans. That similarity may also be 
 detected in matters connected with religious worship. 
 
 Paganism, or the rejection of the One God and the worship 
 of other persons or things, is that to which the great masses of 
 the human family have ever shown themselves inclined, and 
 may, therefore, be considered to be the religion of human 
 nature. And the element of Paganism, that in which it lives 
 and breathes, is the material and the visible, and not, as is the 
 case with Christianity, the immaterial and the unseen. Pagan 
 worship is sensuous ; that is, it belongs to the senses. Christian 
 worship is not sensuous, but spiritual. For the object of 
 Christian worship is God — a Being unseen, but revealed to 
 faith by His Word, and not by sight. 
 
 There is, therefore, this distinguishing difference between 
 Christianity and Paganisrn : that whereas the one is conversant 
 with faith, the other is conversant with sense. " There be 
 many that say, Who will show us any good ? " " Show us 
 good ! " There is the voice of sense, of the sensuous or natural 
 man, whether Pagan or baptized. And opposed to this voice 
 is another, " Lord, lift Thou up the light of Thy countenance 
 upon us." Such is the cry of faith, and of the spiritual man. 
 
 In these two voices we recognise the two religions of the 
 
PAGANISM AND THE ROMAN CHURCH. 9 
 
 earth : the religion of nature, which naturally belongs to all 
 men ; and the religion of faith, which belongs to but few : the 
 religion of Cain and of Abel, of the unregenerate and of the 
 saints, of the world and of the Church. 
 
 In the following pages we shall see that the Church of Rome, 
 though she holds some essential truth, allies herself most 
 closely, by her materialism, to the sensuousness of natural 
 religion, and so symbolizes with Pagan worship, from which 
 also most of her ceremonies are derived. 
 
 Another means by which she corrupted, Christianity, namely, 
 by the adoption of Mosaic ceremonial, I do not notice. 
 Suffice it to say that we Christians have nothing to do with 
 Jewish ceremonies, or with temple-worship. Judaism was an 
 infantine dispensation, the shadow of a Substance since mani- 
 fested — that is, of Christ. It was but a voice, " the voice of 
 one crying in the wilderness " of Heathendom. To the law 
 belonged only beggarly elements long since done away in 
 Christ. Woe to us if we seek to reinstate this effete dispensa- 
 tion ! Christ is our " all in all," and Christ is to be worshipped, 
 not with ceremonies, incense, bowings, and prostrations, but 
 with the heart. 
 
 Christ loved not ceremonies. He invented none ; only, out 
 of the many which He was accustomed to see going on around 
 Him, He partially adopted, or rather adapted, two — Baptism 
 and the Lord's Supper. Both the rules and rites which He 
 instituted for His new society were of the utmost simplicity, 
 independent alike of place and of ritual. 
 
 I may, however, remark with respect to Jewish ceremonies in 
 connection with Romish ritual, that I have been much struck 
 by the little allusion made to them by Roman Catholic 
 antiquarian writers. They freely refer to the Heathen origin of 
 much in their Church, but to the Jewish element — so far as I 
 have seen — there is seldom an allusion. And the reason I 
 take to be partly as follows. While these ecclesiastical writers 
 
lO ROME: PAGAN AND PAPAL. 
 
 are well acquainted with the classical authors, they know their 
 Bibles but little, or not at all. The writers in Picart, and Du 
 Choul in his learned work full of classic lore, often refer 
 Romish ceremonies to Heathen sources, but rarely ever 
 mention Jewish rites. The inference, I apprehend, is that they 
 were not acquainted with them. 
 
 It remains, therefore, a curious fact, that while Roman 
 Catholics in England are apt to deem themselves insulted if 
 one should refer any of their ceremonies to Paganism, their 
 brethren on the Continent take quite a different view, and regard 
 the adaptation of Pagan rites with satisfaction. To them it 
 was a clever device on the part of their ancestors that they 
 Christianized Heathen customs by appropriating them ; so 
 that, on this head, they have nothing in common with the feel- 
 ings of our Roman Catholic neighbours. Ecclesiastics in 
 Rome itself fully recognize what has been stated above, and 
 rejoice in it. 
 
 It is more than thirty years ago since Hobart Seymour wrote 
 the following words : — " In England, Romanists are usually 
 indignant when it is said that their ceremonies were originally 
 Heathen. In Italy, on the other hand, that origin is claimed 
 for them as a proof of the wisdom of a Church which has 
 converted a Heathen people and their Heathen customs into a 
 Christian people and Christian ceremonies." — Pilgrimage to 
 Rome, p. 228. 
 
 To have "a right judgment in all things" is good ; and no 
 doubt our Roman Catholic countrymen arrive at their more 
 correct view of such a method of conversion through their 
 intercourse with a people \yho are enlightened by the Word 
 of God. 
 
 But the learned antiquarian Du Choul, "a good Catholic," 
 thus expresses himself: — "if we closely investigate the subject, 
 we shall perceive that many institutions of our religion have 
 been taken and translated from Egyptian and Heathen 
 
PAGANISM A AD THE ROMAN CHURCH. 
 
 II 
 
 ceremonies. Of this kind are tunics and surplices, the 
 crowns made by our priests, their bowings around the 
 altar, sacrificial pomp, the music of the temples, adorations, 
 prayers and supplications, processions, and litanies. These and 
 many other things — plusieurs autres choses — which the folly and 
 superstitious ignorance of the Heathen refer to their gods and 
 deified men, our priests adopt in our mysteries, and refer to 
 the One Sole God, Jesus Christ." — Discours de la Religion 
 des Anciens Romains, escript par Noble S. G. Du Choul, 
 Coiiseiller du Roy, et Bailly des Montaigncs Du Dauphine : a 
 Lyons, 1580; 4to, p. 339. 
 
 The date of this book is about eight 
 years later than that of the Massacre 
 of St. Bartholomew (1572) ; so that 
 our author may probably have wit- 
 nessed the event. 
 
 He gives, observe, ten or eleven il- 
 lustrations of our subject, and affirms 
 that there are many others. And he 
 is no mean authority, for Moreori writes 
 of him that " he was of his day the 
 greatest investigator into antiquity." 
 He lived, too, at Lyons at a time 
 when Roman antiquities were being 
 continually disinterred. 
 
 This cut represents a baptismal font 
 in the cathedral at Naples, of which I 
 had a careful drawing made many years 
 ago. A glance will show that it was 
 originally a large Bacchic vase, for 
 upon it may be seen the masks and 
 
 ... - . , Font in N.iples C.nthedral, 
 
 thyrsi which were formerly used in the originally a Vase dedicated to 
 
 worship of the obscene god. 
 
 A similar vase — but not so fine — was, some years ago, 
 
12 ROME: PAGAN AND PAPAL. 
 
 pointed out to me by the sacristan in the Church of the Bocca 
 Veritatis at Rome ; and it, also, though once consecrated to 
 Bacchus, is now used for the Christian rite of baptism. 
 
 These fonts present a good illustration of the way in which 
 Rome unites Christianity with Paganism. Indeed, in the one 
 at Naples a third element is introduced : Christian baptism is 
 carried on by means of a Heathen vase surmounted with a 
 Jewish apex, representing the son of Zacharias baptizing Jesus ! 
 
 In the cathedral at Syracuse— where also may be seen many 
 noble pillars which once supported a Heathen temple — there 
 is a third antique font, cut from marble, of vast size, and 
 exhibiting a Greek inscription. 
 
 And at Naples there is yet a fourth vase, the prince of all 
 these Heathen vessels in beauty, though not in size. It is 
 of Greek workmanship, and its material is white marble, the 
 base being exquisitely sculptured in relief. No doubt it once 
 adorned some Bacchic temple : but in later times it seems, 
 like a well known Venus, to have been used by boatmen 
 as a column for mooring their craft, and the hawsers have left 
 their indelible mark upon its beauty. Subsequently, it became 
 the baptismal font of the church at Gaeta, but at last found a 
 more fitting home in the splendid Museum of Naples. 
 
 The subject of the sculpture is Mercury giving the infant 
 Bacchus to the Nymph Leucothea, who gladly stretches out her 
 arms to receive him. But her neck, as well as the body of 
 Mercury, is sadly cut by the sailors* hawsers. Dancing fawns 
 with Bacchantes playing on musical instruments attend their 
 god, and make up the total number of the figures to nine. 
 There is a Greek inscription commemorating the fact that — 
 "The Athenian sculptor made this." 
 
 Now, the adoption of these four vases — and no doubt other 
 examples might be found — while it shows that the Christianity 
 of Rome has no special horror of Paganism, at least so far as 
 the worship of Bacchus is concerned, illustrates also the state- 
 
PAGANISM AND THE ROMAN CHURCH. 13 
 
 ment made above, that Roman Catholics on the Continent by 
 no means shrink from that general adaptation of Heathenism 
 which their English brethren so indignantly repudiate. 
 
 For see how freely the Italian priests use for the baptismal 
 water of the Church those vessels from which once copious 
 libations were wont to be poured out in honour of the Ogygian 
 deity, amid the bowlings of his drunken worshippers. 
 
 "Would you, then, never adapt anything Heathen to Chris- 
 tian use ? " 
 
 I would not say so much, but would certainly avoid Heathen 
 sculptures and emblems. 
 
 It is with pleasure that I recall what I have seen in some 
 Pagan temples in Nubia — and, unless I am mistaken, also at 
 Philse in Egypt — where the idolatrous paintings on the walls 
 had been daubed with Nile mud — obliterated, but not destroyed 
 — by Christian worshippers, in order that their attention to their 
 own service might not be distracted by Heathen blazonry. 
 
 With those long ago deceased Christians I have great 
 sympathy ; for painted windows are to me what, I suppose, 
 painted walls- were to them : they sometimes fascinate my 
 imagination to the injury of devotion, and more frequently 
 offend my tafste. 
 
Ancient Priestess of Isis.' 
 
 Modern Priest of Rome 
 
 III. 
 
 THE EARLY CHURCH. 
 
 Part I. 
 
 THE corruption which Rome inherits began in the earliest 
 days of the Church. As our Lord teaches, tares were 
 from the first sown with the wheat. The prevalent idea of the 
 purity of the early Church is a fiction : the Apostolic Church 
 
 * These illustrations, whicli form a striking parallel, represent an ancient 
 Heathen priestess and a modern Roman priest, each with the aspersorium 
 and aspergillum ; that is, the holy water vessel and the sprinkling brush. 
 The priestess is from a fine marble in the Capitol at Rome : the priest may 
 be seen every day. 
 
THE EARLY CHURCH. 
 
 15 
 
 itself was not pure. And if that was not pure to which the 
 Pentecostal efifusion of the Spirit belonged, what purity can be 
 subsequently looked for ? See how the corruption was spread- 
 ing even during the lifetime of the apostles. The Church of 
 Galatia had turned away from the Gospel to the Law ; the 
 Colossians were scarcely in a better condition ; the Corinthians 
 were walking disorderly ; the Hebrews were in a critical state. 
 At Miletus the elders of the Ephesian Church were warned by 
 Paul of ** ravenous wolves," and told that ruin was imminent 
 to their communion. Peter, James, and Jude give sad note, in 
 their several epistles, of gross scandals which were then prevalent. 
 And, last of all, the Lord's messages to the Seven Churches of 
 Asia reveal deplorable corruption in their general condition. 
 
 This brings us down to about a.d. 96. 
 
 But if it went ill with the Church so far, things were much 
 worse afterwards. By the rod of persecution the Christians 
 were in some degree kept in the right path : but in the times 
 of Constantine, when public persecution had ceased, worldliness 
 and superstition openly took the lead. The effusion of the 
 Spirit was small, and the standard of piety became propor- 
 tionally low. Then priestly. power and monkery asserted their 
 sway, and Mariolatry began to come into prominence. And, 
 while glorying in the faith of their martyred predecessors, the 
 early Christians soon passed from venerating their memories to 
 worshipping their bones. Then, as Jortin remarks : — " Itinerant 
 monks, as pedlars, hawked their relics about the country, and 
 their graves became the haunts of superstition. The Fathers 
 of those times — Athanasius, Gregory Nazienzen, and others, 
 but particularly Chrysoslom with his popular eloquence — con- 
 tributed to the utmost of their power to encourage the 
 superstitious invocation of saints, the love of monkery, and 
 the belief in miracles wrought by monks and relics. Some 
 of these Fathers were valuable men ; but this was the disease 
 of their age, and they were not free from it. In the fourth 
 
1 6 ROME: PAGAN AND PAPAL. 
 
 century they usually introduced an irregular worship of saints 
 on the following plea : — ' Why should not we Christians show 
 the same regard to our saints as the Pagans do to their heroes ? ' 
 The transition from lawful to unlawful veneration was easily 
 made. As the Pagans from honouring their heroes went on 
 to deify them, so it was easy to see that, unless restrained, the 
 Christians would conduct themselves in much the same manner 
 towards their saints. And the Fathers gave the evil encourage- 
 ment by their many indiscretions. Praying at the tombs of the 
 martyrs was one of those fooleries which the Fathers should 
 have restrained. What an idea did it give of the Almighty to 
 weak Christians ! As if fie would show more favour to their 
 petition because it was offered at a place where a good man 
 lay buried ! " — Remarks on Ecclesiastical History, Vol. iii., 7-17. 
 
 The same writer — he was Prebendary of St. Paul's and 
 Archdeacon of London in the middle of the last century — in 
 speaking of Justin Martyr, observes : — " Without detracting from 
 the merits of this worthy man, truth and plain matter of fact 
 extort from us that he and the rest of the Fathers are often 
 poor and insufficient guides in things of judgment and criticism, 
 and in the interpretation of the Scriptures ; sometimes in points 
 of morality also, and of doctrine." — Vol. ii., 163. 
 
 So early, and so extensively, did Paganism begin to leaven 
 the Church ; and convenience, and also the course of events, 
 forwarded the evil. For the Heathen temples and the Heathen 
 courts of justice — the latter stately and convenient buildings 
 termed basilicas, that is, royal structures— were naturally 
 utilized as places of Christian worship. In the case of the 
 second class of edifice the metamorphosis was especially easy. 
 The apse, which the Heathen magistrate and his assessors were 
 wont to occupy — he being seated on a lofty chair, and they on 
 semicircular ascending grades of solid masonry — was now used 
 by the bishop and his presbyters. There were rails — cancelli, 
 whence the words chancel and chancellor — which separated the 
 
THE EARLY CHURCH. 1 7 
 
 apse from the rest of the building. Close to these stood the 
 Heathen altar., which gave place to the Christian communion- 
 table. At the gates of the basilica — certainly at those of the 
 temple — might have been the vessel for the liistral water, or 
 water of purification, which remained as it was before, except 
 that it was now called holy water. The images of the gods, 
 if they were not removed, received new names, and, by a process 
 of anointing and sprinkling, were turned into Christian saints. 
 Sometimes, however, they were removed, and their places 
 supplied by others less unsuitable. The hangings, draperies, 
 and many of the ornaments, remained ; the body of the build- 
 ing with its two galleries was left unaltered. These basilicas 
 formed the pattern for our noblest churches, one of which, yet 
 in existence at Bethlehem, is supposed to be the oldest Christian 
 structure standing. The grandest in Europe is St. Paul's, out- 
 side Rome — one of those many wonderful buildings erected 
 to captivate the imagination of man and powerfully assist in 
 bringing him under the sway of superstition. 
 
 Enthroned in an edifice thus royal and splendid, the bishop 
 became a person of the greatest importance, and his office was 
 much coveted. Not infrequently his election was attended 
 with bloodshed. As Gibbon (chap, xx.) says; — ^" The inte- 
 rested views, the selfish and angry passions, the arts of perfidy 
 and dissimulation, the secret corruption, the open and even 
 bloody violence, which had formerly disgraced the freedom of 
 election in the commonwealths of Greece and Rome, too often 
 influenced the choice of the successors of the apostles." The 
 historian is speaking of the era of Constantine, who died 
 A.D. 3 '-,7. The See of Rome, as being that of the capital, 
 was of course the most coveted, and its bishops, who soon 
 assumed a Heathen imperial title, that of Pontifex or Pontiff, 
 naturally rose to the first distinction. 
 
 And so Paganism began to recover its power, and to prevail 
 among the Christians themselves. '* The gay and splendid 
 
 2 
 
I 8 ROME: PAGAN AXD PAPAL. 
 
 appearance of the churches helped to allure the half-converts. 
 New amusements made up for those which they had quitted. 
 If they had been superstitious before, they might be so still. 
 In the room of gods and goddesses they had saints male and 
 female — lord and lady protectors — to whom they might pay 
 their respects. Instead of sleeping in their former temples, they 
 could slumber over the bones of the martyrs, and receive as 
 good information and assistance as before. If they longed 
 for miracles, prodigies, visions, omens, divinations, amulets and 
 charms, they might be supplied." — -Jortin, Vol. iii., lo. 
 
 In regard to the sleeping in the churches, we may remark 
 that this is still practised at Jerusalem, in the church of the Holy 
 Sepulchre, a night or more before " the holy fire." On one 
 occasion I was much surprised to see a quantity of bedding in 
 the church, and a number of both sexes waiting to occupy it. 
 The sight was curious, but painful, and I was told that strange 
 vows are made in connection with this ancient Heathen custom. 
 
 Du Choul (p. 319) says that in Pagan times the skins of 
 victims which were part of the temple furniture formed the 
 bedding. But he adds that, when Christianized, the custom 
 became so abused that Constantine did away with such noc- 
 turnal devotions, p02(r les insolences que Von y faisoit. 
 
 Something similar was, however, formerly carried on in St. 
 Peter's at Rome, and continued even into the present century. 
 At Easter a large cross was illuminated in the church, while 
 the rest of the building was left in darkness. But all kinds 
 of abominations compelled the discontinuance of the practice. 
 Human nature, bad enough in the light, is still less to be trusted 
 in darkness. However, when at Rome in 1852, I was told of 
 something in St. Peter's even worse than this. 
 
Thurifers, or Incense-bearers. 
 Heathen. Christian. 
 
 IV. 
 
 THE EARLY CHURCH. 
 
 Part II. 
 
 IN the preceding chapter, allusion was made to the irregu- 
 larities and violence which frequently disgraced the election 
 of a bishop in the early times of the Church. " In the latter 
 half of the fourth century," writes Dean Milman, "the streets 
 
 * The illustrations represent youthful incense-bearers, Pagan and Papal ; 
 the former from an engraving after the antique in Montfaucon's great work. 
 Their duty was to attend upon the priest during the sacrifice, etc. An 
 incense-box is seen in the hand of each, styled acerra by Pagan, and naviccllo 
 by Papal, Rome. The Heathen official was called camilliis : the Christian 
 is named thurifer or acolyte. See Rich's Diet. 
 
20 ROME: PAGAN AND PAPAL. 
 
 of Rome ran with blood during the contest of Damasus and 
 Ursicinus for the bishopric of that city." 
 
 " One cannot say of Damasus, the successful combatant," 
 remarks Archdeacon Jortin, "that he fought a good fight 
 when he fought for his bishopric. His bravos, hired gladia- 
 tors, and others, slew many of the opposite party ; and great 
 was the fury of the religious ruffians on both sides in this 
 holy war. Pious times, and much to be honoured and 
 envied ! " 
 
 The historian Ammianus Marcellinus — an honest Pagan, 
 as Gibbon calls him — relates that Juventius, the governor 
 of Rome, was quite unable to put an end to these disorders, 
 and was at last compelled by the violence of the Church 
 factions to withdraw from the city. " Ultimately," continues 
 the historian, " Damasus got the best of the strife by the 
 strenuous efforts of his partisans. It is certain that on one 
 day one hundred and thirty-seven dead bodies were found in 
 the Basilica of Sicinius, which is a Christian Church." He 
 adds that he does not marvel at the efforts which men put 
 forth to obtain such a rank and power ; " since, after they 
 have succeeded, they will be secure for the future, being 
 enriched by offerings from matrons — Damasus was called the 
 ' ear-tickle of the ladies ' — riding in carriages, dressing splen- 
 didly, and feasting luxuriously, so that their entertainments 
 surpass even royal banquets." Strange contrast to the humble 
 poverty of the apostles of Christ ! 
 
 It was in a.d. 366 that Damasus fought for the Popedom, 
 in the sixtieth year of his age. " But," says Jortin, " the 
 strangest part of the story is that Damasus was a saint, and 
 that miracles were \\Tought in his favour after his death ! " The 
 world will love its own, and here is an example of those whom 
 it deifies ! What matter, whether they be Heathen heroes or 
 Christian saints ? 
 
 Pope Damasus died towards the close of the fourth century, 
 
THE EARLY CHURCH. 21 
 
 and here is a bird's-eye view from Gibbon of what followed in 
 the Church. 
 
 *' If, in the beginning of the fifth century, TertuUian or 
 Lactantius had been suddenly raised from the dead, to assist 
 at the festival of some popular saint or martyr, they would have 
 gazed with astonishment and indignation on the profane 
 spectacle which had succeeded to the pure and spiritual 
 worship of a Christian congregation. As soon as the doors of 
 the church were thrown open, they must have been offended 
 with the smoke of incense, the perfume of flowers, and the 
 glare of lamps and tapers, which diffused, at noon-day, a 
 gaudy, superfluous, and, in their opinion, a sacrilegious light. 
 If they had approached the balustrade of the altar, they would 
 have had to make their way through the prostrate crowd, con- 
 sisting for the most part of strangers and pilgrims, who resorted 
 to the city on the vigil of the feast ; and who already felt the 
 strong intoxication of fanaticism, and perhaps of wine. Their 
 devout kisses were imprinted on the walls and pavement of 
 the sacred edifice ; and their fervent prayers were directed, 
 whatever might be the language of their Church, to the bones, 
 the blood, or the ashes, of the saint. . . . Whenever they 
 undertook any distant or dangerous journey, they requested 
 that the holy martyrs would be their guides and protectors on 
 the road ; and if they returned without having experienced 
 any misfortune, they again hastened to the tombs of the 
 martyrs to celebrate, with greatful thanksgivings, their obliga- 
 tions to the memory and relics of those heavenly patrons. 
 The walls were hung round with symbols of the favours they 
 had received ; eyes, and hands, and feet, of gold and silver ; 
 and edifying pictures, which could not long escape the abuse 
 of indiscreet or idolatrous devotion, represented the image, the 
 attributes, and the miracles, of the tutelar saint." 
 
 Such was the semi-Pagan worship carried on in the Christian 
 Church in the fifth century. 
 
22 ROME: PAGAN AND PAPAL. 
 
 In the beginning of this age died St. Chrysostom, Bishop of 
 Constantinople, who lived in the reign of Theodosius. He 
 has left us copious and instructive details of the state of 
 society in his capital and country at that period. In delineat- 
 ing its corruption, he also inveighs against the luxury of the 
 times, and especially the dress of females, which he describes. 
 He represents the stage as obscene and abominable, and tells 
 us of rope-dancers, balancers, etc.; so that those who have 
 read Kingsley's wonderful historic romance, "Hypatia," will at 
 once perceive the source whence the author obtained some of 
 his facts. Moreover, he censures the manner in which mar- 
 riages were celebrated— the hymns which were sung in honour 
 of Venus ! the indecent plays which were exhibited to the 
 guests, and the introduction of other abominations which were 
 offensive, not to Christians only, but to the very Heathen 
 themselves. 
 
 St. Cyril, Bishop of Alexandria in Egypt, comes a little after 
 Chrysostom, and died a.d. 444. This saint was a remarkable 
 man, and one who pushed his pretensions of priestly power to 
 the utmost degree. His letters show the height to which the 
 episcopal power aspired before the religion of Christ had 
 become that of the Roman Empire. He demands implicit 
 obedience for the priest of God, who is the sole infallible 
 judge, or delegate of Christ, Judex vice Chris fi. "He was 
 made bishop," says Jortin, " and made himself lord and 
 master, of Alexandria." " He acted like a sovereign prince, 
 and shut up all the Novatian churches, taking away their plate 
 and furniture, and all the goods and chattels of their bishop." 
 
 At that time there were some forty thousand Jews residing 
 in Alexandria. These had made an onslaught on the Chris- 
 tians, and it was thus that Cyril took his revenge. Without 
 any magisterial sanction, he led a seditious multitude at dawn 
 of day to destroy the synagogues, and succeeded in effecting 
 his purpose. The Jews, taken by surprise and unarmed, were 
 
THE EARLY CHURCH. 23 
 
 not able to resist ; they were driven out of the city, and the 
 pillage of their quarter rewarded the exertions of the Christian 
 mob. Thus was Alexandria impoverished by the loss of a 
 wealthy and industrious colony, which had been for centuries 
 protected by special statutes. 
 
 But a yet darker crime is, it is to be feared, connected with 
 Cyril's patriarchal chair. The Roman governor of Alexandria, 
 Orestes, was attacked in his chariot and severely wounded by 
 five hundred moiiks from the desert, the creatures of Cyril, 
 from whose hands he was delivered by some loyal citizens. 
 The ringleader of the monks, who was cruelly executed, was, 
 though a rebel and assassin, treated as a martyr by Cyril, who 
 buried him with grand solemnities, and highly eulogized him 
 . from the pulpit of the cathedral. Shortly afterwards something 
 worse followed. Orestes and Cyril were at variance, and a 
 rumour was abroad that their reconciliation was impeded by a 
 person renowned, not merely in that city, but throughout the 
 whole of civilized Europe. This was the celebrated Hypatia, 
 whose statue in marble some of my readers may have seen in 
 the last Paris Exposition. It is thus that Gibbon tells her dark 
 story : — 
 
 " Daughter of Theon, the mathematician, she was initiated 
 into her father's studies. Her learned comments have eluci- 
 dated- the geometry of ApoUonius and Diophantus, and she 
 publicly taught, both at Athens and Alexandria, the philosophy 
 of Plato and of Aristotle. In the bloom of beauty, and in the 
 maturity of wisdom, the modest maid refused her lovers and 
 instructed her disciples. The persons most illustrious for 
 their rank or merit were impatient to visit the female philo- 
 sopher, and Cyril beheld with a jealous eye the gorgeous train 
 of horses and slaves which crowded the door of her academy. 
 . . . On a fatal day, in the holy season of Lent, Hypatia was 
 torn from her chariot, stripped naked, dragged to the church, 
 and inhumanly butchered by the hands of Peter the Reader, 
 
24 
 
 ROME: FAGAN AND PAPAL. 
 
 and a troop of savage and merciless fanatics : her flesh was 
 scraped from her bones with sharp oyster-shells, which lay 
 near, and her quivering limbs were delivered to the flames. 
 The just progress of inquiry and punishment was stopped by 
 seasonable gifts ; but the murder of Hypatia has imprinted 
 an indelible stain on the character and religion of Cyril of 
 Alexandria." " At the mention of that injured name," adds 
 Gibbon in a note, " I am pleased to observe a blush even on 
 the cheek of Baronius." 
 
 Cyril professed his innocence ; but since he would neither 
 give up, nor even excommunicate, the murderers, we can draw 
 but one inference. 
 
 The monks of Alexandria, with their patriarch Cyril, shared 
 a Paganism which they held in common with that " rout that 
 made the hideous roar," the murderers of the sweet-voiced 
 Orpheus. They had indeed been baptized, but what ditference 
 was there in heart between them and the fierce Bacchantes who 
 tore the poet's limbs asunder ? Were not both monks and 
 Thracian women Heathens alike ? " " By their fruits ye shall 
 know them." 
 
 And yet this Cyril was a saint ! 
 
 A caiitillns, or Heatlien acolyte, usually of noble birth, who acted as attendant to 
 the priest at the altar. Copied from the Vatican Virgil. 
 
V. 
 
 THE COMPROMISING SPIRIT OF THE EARLY CHURCH. 
 
 WE have sketched some of the corruptions of early 
 Christianity ; it is time to inquire to what causes they 
 were mainly due. And the answer undoubtedly is — To the 
 compromising spirit of the nominal Church. 
 
 " Rome," says Professor Blunt, " was under a temptation to 
 mingle sacred and profane together. It did not, like Con- 
 stantinople, rise at once a Christian capital. The Gospel was 
 gradually introduced into it, and had to win its way by slow 
 degrees through the ancient sympathies and inveterate habits 
 of the Pagan city. It was a maxim with some of the early 
 promoters of the Christian cause to do as little violence as 
 possible to existing prejudices. They would run the risk of 
 Barnabas being confounded with Jupiter, and Paul with Mer- 
 cury. In the transition from Pagan to Papal Rome much of 
 the old material was worked up. The Heathen temples became 
 Christian churches ; the altars of the gods, altars of the saints ; 
 the curtains, incense, tapers, votive tablets, remained the same ; 
 the aquaminarium was still the vessel for holy water ; St. Peter 
 stood at the gate instead of Cardea ; St. Roque or St. Sebastian 
 in the bedroom, instead of the " Phrygian Penates " ; St. 
 Nicholas was the sign of the vessel, instead of Castor and 
 Pollux; the Matre Deum became the Madonna; "alms pro 
 Matre Deum " became alms for the Madonna ; the festival of the 
 Mater Deum, the festival of the Madonna, or Lady Day ; the 
 Hostia, or victim, was now the Host ; the " Lugentes Campi, " 
 o*r dismal regions. Purgatory ; the offerings to the Manes were 
 masses for the dead." 
 
26 ROME: PAGAN AND PAPAL. 
 
 Such is the testimony of Blunt, who adds in a note that the 
 very name Purgatory is Heathen ; since the annual Feast of 
 Purification in February was called " Sacrum Purgatorium." 
 
 " This mode of acting," says Picart, in regard to the same 
 subject, " was not intended to Paganize, but wisely to counter- 
 mine Paganism, and as a counterpoise — covime tin contre-poids 
 — to parry the reproaches that the Pagans made against the 
 Christians" (vol. i., p. i6). 
 
 " Wisely to countermine " ! Such is the wisdom of this 
 world. But "the wisdom of this world is foolishness with 
 God" (i Cor. iii. 19). 
 
 The following quotation, also from Picart, illustrates the 
 principle, alluded to above, of doing no violence to sinful 
 prejudices and habits ; in other words, of doing evil that good 
 may come. " In order to win the Pagans to Christ, instead 
 of Pagan watchings and commemorations of their gods, the 
 Christians rejoiced in vigils and anniversaries of their martyrs ; 
 and, to show that they had regard to the public prosperity, in 
 place of those feasts in which the Heathen priests were wont 
 to supplicate the gods for the welfare of their country — such 
 as the Amba7~valia, Robigalia, etc.— they introduced rogations, 
 litanies, and processions made with naked feet, invoking 
 Christ instead of Jupiter" (vol. i., p. 26). And this, according 
 to the writer, is the reason why " our fetes and ceremonies have 
 generally a Pagan origin." 
 
 Thus we trace what has been faithfully called the introduction 
 of a baptized Heathenism. As Didron expresses it, " Chris- 
 tianity — his kind of Christianity-^«//<3? // necessary to appro- 
 priate the images of Paganism, and to purify them with a 
 Christian ideality." 
 
 Yes ; and Mahomet also found tlie same necessity in intro- 
 ducing his false religion : nor is the reason difficult to discover 
 in either case. Neither a depraved " Christianity," nor Islam, 
 possessed an innate power that could grapple with and over- 
 
COMPROMISING SPIRIT OF THE EARLY CHURCH. 2 J 
 
 come the older idolatrous creeds : therefore both false systems 
 were constrained to compromise. The tribes that were to be 
 " Christianized " were allowed to transfer the peculiar worship 
 of their old divinity to a patron saint of similar attributes. And, 
 in much the same way, Mahomet also was forced to suit 
 himself to circumstances, as the following remarks — copied 
 from the Times of January 3rd, iSSo — will show : — 
 
 " The old Sabean ceremonies and superstitions were so 
 intimately connected with the social life of the Arabs that 
 Mahomet was compelled to leave them almost as they were, 
 contenting himself with forbidding a few of the most glaring 
 and vicious abuses. Thus the mummeries of the Haji pilgrim- 
 age, with the visitation of the sacred mountains of Safa and 
 Merwa, where two favourite idols used to stand ; the custom of 
 pelting the Devil in the vale of Mina ; the sacrifices on the 
 same spot; the festival of the new moon, and a thousand 
 other Pagan rites and observances, were left to temper the 
 creed of the iconoclastic prophet." 
 
 In opposition to this time-serving complaisance on the part' 
 of false Christian and Mahometan, with what majesty does the 
 uncompromising simplicity of the religion of Jesus stand forth, 
 proclaiming in the ears of all men : — 
 
 " He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life ; and he 
 that believeth not the Son shall not see life ; but the wTath of 
 God abideth on him " (John iii. 36). 
 
VI. 
 
 FURTHER EVIDENCE TO THE COMPROMISING SPIRIT 
 OF THE EARLY CHURCH. 
 
 IN further confirmation of the previous chapters on the 
 early corruption of Christianity, we quote the following 
 passage from Merivale's Lectures on Early Church History, in 
 which the Dean gives his view of the Paganized condition of 
 the Church in the fifth century — a period which many are wont 
 to consider comparatively pure. 
 
 "But neither Leo— that is Leo the Great, Pope from 
 A.D. 440 toA.D. 461 — nor, I think, the contemporary doctors 
 of the Church, seem to have had an adequate sense of the 
 process by which the whole essence of Paganism was, through- 
 out their age, constantly percolating the ritual of the Church, 
 and the hearts of the Christian multitude. It is not to these 
 teachers that we can look for a warning — 
 
 " That the fasts prescribed by the Church had their parallel 
 in the abstinence imposed by certain Pagan creeds ; 
 
 " That the monachism which they extolled so warmly, and 
 which spread so rapidly, was, in its origin, a purely Pagan 
 institution, common to the religions of India, Thibet, and 
 Syria ; 
 
 "That the canonizing of saints and martyrs, the honours paid 
 to them, and the trust reposed in them, were simply a revival 
 of the old Pagan mythologies ; 
 
 " That the multiplication of ceremonies, together with proces- 
 sions, lights, incense, vestments, and votive offerings, was a mere 
 
COMPROMISING SPIRIT OF THE EARIY CHURCH. 29 
 
 Pagan appeal to the senses, such as can never fail to enervate 
 man's moral fibre ; 
 
 "That, in short, the general aspect of Christian devotion 
 was a faint, and rather frivolous, imitation of the old Pagan 
 ritual. 
 
 " The working of true Christianity was never more faint among 
 the masses ; the approximation of Church usage to the manners 
 and customs of Paganism never really closer. 
 
 " Surely we must complain that all this manifest evil was not, 
 at this time, denounced by the teachers of the Christian Church; 
 nay, that it was rather fostered and favoured by them." 
 
 A little further on he remarks : — 
 
 " The spirit of the old (Heathen) traditions had become to a 
 great extent merged in the popular Christianity, and actually 
 assimilated to it." 
 
 " The multitudes. half-Christian and half-Pagan, met together 
 in those unhappy days to confuse the Feast of the Nativity with 
 the Feast of the Saturnalia (in honour of Saturn) ; the Feast of 
 the Purification with the Feast of the Lupercalia (in honour of 
 Pan) ; and the Feast of Rogations with the Feast of the Ambar- 
 valia (in honour of Ceres)." 
 
 Such is the opinion of Dean Merivale. We will now cite 
 the testimony of a layman to the same effect, an extract from a 
 well-known book, Mathetd's Diary of an Invalid: — 
 
 " Amongst the antiquities of Rome you are shown the Temple 
 of Romulus, built round the very house in which they say he 
 lived. Need we go further to seek the prototype of the tale of 
 the house of Loretto ? 
 
 " The modern worship of saints is a revival of the old adoration 
 paid to heroes and demigods. 
 
 " What are nuns with their vows of celibacy, but a new edition 
 of the vestal virgins ? 
 
 " What the tales of images falling from heaven, but a repetition 
 of the old fable of the Palladium of Troy ? 
 
30 ROME: PAGAN AND PAPAL. 
 
 " Instead of tutelary gods, we find guardian angels. 
 
 " The canonization of a saint is but another term for the 
 apotheosis of a hero. 
 
 " The processions are clearly copied from ancient patterns. 
 
 " The lustral water, and the incense of the Heathen temple, 
 remain without alteration in the holy water and in the censer 
 of the Church. 
 
 " The daily 'Sacrifice of the Mass' seems to be copied from 
 the victim — hostia — of the Heathen ritual. 
 
 " The ceremonial of Isis to have been revived in the indecent 
 emblems presented by women ; e.g., at Isernia, near Naples, up 
 to the year 1790, as votive offerings at the shrine of S. Cosmo 
 in that city. 
 
 " Nay, some would trace the Pope himself, with the triple 
 crown on his head and the keys of heaven and hell in his 
 pocket, to our old acquaintance Cerberus with his three heads, 
 who keeps guard as the custos of Tartarus and Elysium. 
 
 " The very same piece of brass which the old Romans wor- 
 shipped as Jupiter, with a new head on its shoulders — like an 
 old friend with a new face — is now, in St. Peter's, adored with 
 equal devotion by the modern Italians. 
 
 " And, as if they wished to make the resemblance as perfect as 
 possible, they have, in imitation of his Pagan prototype, sur- 
 rounded the tomb of the Apostle with a hundred ever-burning 
 lights." 
 
 '• Centum aras posuit, vigilemque sacraverat igneni." 
 
 Virg. ^7''.ii. iv. 200. 
 
 The writer further observes that " some traces of the old 
 Heathen superstitions are indeed constantly peeping out from 
 under their Roman Catholic disguises. We cannot so inocu- 
 late our old stock but that we shall relish by it. If anything 
 could have improved the tree, it must have borne better fruit 
 by being grafted with Christianity. But in many particulars, 
 
COMPROMISING SPIRIT OF THE EARLY CHURCH. 
 
 3f 
 
 so far as Italy is concerned, all the change produced has been 
 a mere change of name " (p. 90). 
 
 Just in the same strain Forsyth, a man well acquainted with 
 Italy, and possessed of a fine classic taste, writes as follows :— 
 
 " I have found the statue of a god pared down into a Chris- 
 tian saint ; a Heathen altar converted into a church box for the 
 poor; a Bacchanalian vase officiating as a baptismal font; a 
 Bacchanalian tripod supporting the holy water basin; the 
 sarcophagus of an old Roman adored as a shrine full of relics ; 
 the brass columns of Jupiter Capitolinus now consecrated to 
 the altar of the Blessed Sacrament ; and the tomb of Agrippa 
 turned into the tomb of a Pope." — Forsyth's Italy, p. 134. 
 
 And indeed all writers who are acquainted with antiquity — 
 be they lay or clerical, Protestant or Papal, Italian or foreign — 
 agree as to the Pagan origin of Rome's present usages and 
 ceremonies. It is a palpable fact that, in very early times, the 
 nominal Church made a compromise. She soon ceased to 
 cry, "Come out from among them, and be ye separate; and 
 touch not the unclean thing." There was no sound of the 
 trumpet, no alarm of war, no protest, no extermination of 
 idolatrous practices. A living Church in the midst of a sinful 
 and adulterous generation must be an aggressive Church : but 
 here all was compromise, polite assent, dilution, " the wine 
 mingled with water." There was, just as there is now, a tacit 
 consent to keep unpleasant subjects in the shad-e. There was 
 peace when there should have been the shout of battle, and 
 " Paganism was assimilated, not extirpated." " The leaders 
 of the Church," says Merivale, " were afraid of any spiritual 
 movement which should extend the limits of their dark outlook. 
 They scouted the more spiritual reformers of the age, whom 
 God will never suffer to be altogether wanting in His Church, 
 and branded them as heretics, while they suppressed the 
 testimony of their teaching." 
 
 How striking the likeness in the men of the present day to 
 
32 ROME: PAGAN AND PAPA I.. 
 
 the Christians of the fifth century ; for the spirit of compromise 
 is again abroad. And yet everything beyond St. Paul's 
 " decently and in order," everything belonging to the old 
 Heathen rites, such as gorgeous ceremonial, "high ritual," 
 " stately worship," — not one of these things belongs to the 
 Gospel, not one is to be found in the New Testament, not one 
 is countenanced by the teachings of our Lord and His apostles. 
 All are but devices of the natural unregenerate heart _of man, 
 and have, therefore, appeared in all ages, and among all 
 nations, whatever their religion might be. 
 
 Strange that those compromising priests of the early Church 
 should not have been able to decipher the mind of Him, 
 Whom they professed to own as God, by His direction given 
 to His ancient people in circumstances very similar to their 
 own. For the Israelites, like the early Christians, were set 
 in the midst of an idolatrous people, and it is thus that they 
 were commanded to deal with the abominations around 
 them : — 
 
 " Ye shall utterly destroy all the places wherein the nations 
 which ye shall possess served their gods, upon the high moun- 
 tains, and upon the hills, and under every green tree : and ye 
 shall overthrow their altars, and break their pillars, and burn 
 their groves with fire ; and ye shall hew down the graven 
 images of their gods, and destroy the names of them out of 
 that place " (Deut. xii. 2, 3). 
 
 But the teachers of the early Church could not resist the 
 goodly Babylonish garment, and the shekels of silver, and the 
 wedge of gold ; they did not prayerfully consider God's hatred 
 of everything idolatrous : for had they done so, Christianity 
 would not have been handed down to us the jumble of 
 Heathenism which it is. 
 
 Would that many clergymen in the Church of England 
 would take warning from the mistake, and would earnestly 
 study the Word of God with the view of ascertaining His mind 
 
COMPROMISING' SPIRIT OF THE EARL Y CHURCH. 3 3 
 
 upon this point : they would then no lOnger show that inclina- 
 tion toward the idolatrous Church of Rome which is now so 
 painfully apparent. 
 
 " Idolatrous Church of Rome, did you say ? " some might 
 ask in surprise. Yes. On four counts at least Rome can be 
 proved guilty of idolatry without any difficulty. 
 
 She worships graven and molten images, and to justify the 
 idolatry frequently omits the second commandment in her 
 catechisms, and divides the tenth into two, in order to make 
 up the number. 
 She worships dead men and women, and angels. 
 She worships relics, especially pieces of the cross, to which 
 she gives the highest kind of worship, called Latria. 
 
 She worships a piece of bread in the Mass, in that Sacrament 
 which the Church of England, in her Thirty-ninth Article, desig- 
 nates as " a blasphemous fable." 
 
 On these four counts, then, without going further, we 
 maintain that Rome is guilty of idolatry. 
 
 In our Protestant churches images are allowed by law for 
 ornament, but not for worship. Unfortunately this permission 
 opens the door for many abuses. For who shall say where 
 ornament ends, and worship — that is, idolatry — begins? Or 
 what true believer can read the denunciations of the Almighty 
 against images, and all that is connected with them, and not 
 exclaim, — " Perish images from Protestant churches ! " ? 
 
 The Moslem enters our places of worship, and says, — "These 
 Christians are idolaters ! " 
 
 The Jew looks into our churches, and cries, — " These 
 Christians are idolaters ! " 
 
 Both thQ one and the other execrate our Christianity as 
 idolatry, and should we, for the sake of ornament, forsooth, 
 cast this scandal and stone of offence in our brother's way ? 
 " Woe to that man," said the Lord of the Church, " by whom 
 the offence cometh ! " 
 
 3 
 
34 ROME: PAGAN AND PAPAL. 
 
 In this respect, both the mosque of the Moslem, and the 
 synagogue of the Jew, are more pure than the church of the 
 Christian ! 
 
 " Look," said a Polish Jew to his son, the latter, from whom I 
 heard the story, being a recent convert to Christianity — " Look," 
 said he, taking the youth to the window, and pointing to the 
 image of a saint at the opposite corner of the street, " there is 
 the idolatry by joining which you have degraded yourself, and 
 dishonoured your ancestors." 
 
 The father, however, was mistaken : it was not to an idolatrous 
 form of Christianity that the young man had become united. 
 
 " Look, look ! aunt," said a little boy just come from India, 
 as he entered an English parish church adorned with these 
 legalized graven images, " Look at the idols ! " The child in 
 his simplicity took them for Siva, Vishnu, or other Heathen 
 gods. One cannot help remembering to have read something 
 about " little ones," and that it would be better for him who 
 puts a stumbling-block in their way, if a millstone had been 
 hanged about his neck, and he had been cast into the sea. 
 
VII. 
 
 THE DARK AGES. 
 
 WE have already, in our third and fourth chapters, passed 
 in review several facts illustrative of the early corruption 
 and subsequent Paganizing of the Christian Church, from the 
 times of the apostles to about a.d. 450. The subject is a painful 
 one. But at a time when everything ancient — that is, post- 
 apostolic — in Church matters is lauded and held up to imitation, 
 it becomes a duty, however disagreeable it may be, to inquire 
 what the truth really is. And hitherto our investigation has not 
 strengthened our trust in antiquity. The extract from Gibbon's 
 twenty-eighth chapter showed generally that Christian worship 
 in the early part of the fifth century presented ''a profane 
 spectacle " ; because it was to a great extent a mere reproduction 
 of Pagan ceremonial. Then, again, the actions or writings of 
 Damasus, Chrysostom, and Cyril, the bishops respectively of 
 Rome, Constantinople, and Alexandria, prove that in those 
 great centres — the capital cities of Roman Europe, Asia, and 
 Africa — the state of religion was as corrupt as it could have been 
 in the provinces. And what else could have been expected, 
 seeing that two of the three saints, namely the Pope and the 
 Patriarch, were, if not themselves men of blood, at least the 
 abettors of murderers and assassins. The basilica of Sicinius 
 at Rome, bespattered with the blood of the hundred and thirty- 
 seven victims of ecclesiastical violence, and the great metro- 
 politan church of Alexandria, desecrated by the ferocious 
 murder of the gifted Hypatia, attest how little Christianity 
 had subdued the Paganism of the age ; while the writings of 
 
T^6 ROME: PAGAN AND PAPAL. 
 
 Chrysostom give painful evidence to the same effect. Such, 
 then, was the state of reHgion in the Church up to the middle of 
 the fifth century. 
 
 Some brief notices of intermediate times may be useful? 
 before we pass on to expose the gross darkness which was 
 brooding upon Christendom when the light of the Reformation 
 began to dawn upon it from the Word of God. 
 
 But was there no light through the long intervening period 
 of gloom ? Oh, yes ! God did not leave Himself without 
 wdtnesses. In the desert, in the monastery, in the city, here 
 and there in dens and in caves of the earth, in the mountains 
 of Piedmont, Dauphine, and elsewhere, they might have been 
 found ; often destitute, afflicted, tormented, and yet the salt of 
 the earth of whom the world was not worthy. Such were the 
 secret ones of God ; such were His elect, His faithful witnesses, 
 who carried on the apostolic succession of the Spirit, and 
 with whom was the fulfilment of the promise, " Lo ! I am with 
 you always, even unto the end of the world." But the sword 
 of persecution, and the torture and flames of the Roman 
 Inquisition — the Holy Office — cut off these holy ones in countless 
 multitudes. Many of them were in the Church of Rome, but 
 not of her : and of these not a few gradually learnt to look 
 upon her as the woman sitting upon a scarlet-coloured beast, 
 the mother of harlots and abominations, drunken with the 
 blood of the saints. They testified against her idols and idola- 
 tries; and, in answer, she slew them. Very remarkable among 
 the testimonies of the period is that of Uante, one of those 
 who escaped the sword. 
 
 " To you, St. John referred, O shepherds vile, 
 When she, who sits on many waters, had 
 Been seen with kings her person to defile — 
 The same who with seven heads arose on earth, 
 And wore ten horns to prove that power was hers 
 Long as her husband had delight in worth. 
 Your gods ye make of silver and of gold, 
 And wherein differ from idolaters ? " lufcnio, xix, lo6. 
 
THE DARK AGES. 37 
 
 How terrible a comment have we upon the svords " drunken 
 with the blood of the saints " in the slaughter of the Vaudois, in 
 A.D. 1686. Dr. Gilly informs us that, in the course of six 
 months, out of a slender population, over twelve thousand were 
 destroyed by imprisonment, fire, and sword, — 
 
 "Slain by the bloody Piedmontese, who roll'd 
 Mother and infant down the rock." 
 
 We will now adduce some evidence respecting the state of 
 things in that period of the Church which is well called the 
 Dark Ages. 
 
 Cardinal Baronius, the annalist and ready apologist of all 
 Rome's evil deeds, thus describes it : — " It seemed as if Christ 
 again slept a profound sleep in the ship of His Church, and 
 there wanted disciples in the midst of the storm to awaken the 
 
 Lord with their cries They had thrust into St. Peter's 
 
 chair, which was the throne of Christ, monstrous men, most 
 debauched in their lives, abandoned in their morals, and in all 
 respects abominable." (Quoted by Townsend in his Accusations, 
 p. 103.) 
 
 "Against the Catholics," says Jortin, " their enemies alleged 
 — ' You have turned your love-feasts into Pagan sacrifices, and 
 your martyrs into their idols, whom you serve with the very 
 same honours. You appease the shades of the dead with wine 
 (libations) and with funeral feasts. You celebrate the festivals 
 of the Heathen, and their manners you retain without any 
 alteration. Nothing distinguishes you from Pagans, except 
 that you worship apart from them.' " The archdeacon adds, 
 " In this there is falsehood and truth. Pagans had, with 
 Paganism, begun to enter into the Church." 
 
 In regard to the appeasing of the dead with wine at their 
 saints' festivals, this practice was considered good both for dead 
 and living. As to the dead, " they thought they pleased the 
 saints by pouring fragrant wine upon their tombs," after the 
 manner of the Heathen. As to the living, they thought it good 
 
38 ROME: PAGAN AND PAPAL. 
 
 for themselves, and drank freely at the martyrs' graves. " Oh ! " 
 cries a saint of the time, "that they would offer with more 
 sobriety ; that they would not be quaffing wine within the sacred 
 precincts ! " 
 
 In the ninth century, Michael, the Emperor of the East, a foe 
 to those images of which the Orthodox were so fond, in describ- 
 ing the worship of the Churches to the German Emperor 
 Louis, says, " They sang before the images." This, however, 
 is common enough now. Last Christmas I was at Aries and at 
 Nismes, and heard young girls singing before an image of Mary 
 in both places. It was at night, and the idols were beautifully 
 and tastefully illuminated, while the other parts of the churches 
 w^ere in darkness. The effect was admirable, and the singing 
 to the idols very sweet : but the virgins of Aries were more 
 melodious in their songs than the virgins of Nismes. I have 
 witnessed the same practice at Florence, and at Antwerp. 
 
 But let me say a word respecting the grand old church at 
 Aries, to which we have just referred. Observe when you go 
 there, reader, a curiosity — one of many — in the noble cloister 
 of the cathedral ; namely, the capital of one of the columns 
 which represents the dream of the Magi. There they are, three 
 little men all tucked up most comfortably in the same bed, and 
 fast asleep. The old sacristan called my attention to this 
 mediaeval eccentricity. *' Voila ! " said he, " Monsieur perceives 
 that they have their crowns on instead of night-caps ! " And 
 Eure enough they had. 
 
 To return to the Emperor Michael. " Before the images," 
 he says, " they sing, worship, and implore." Of course : but 
 this. Heathenish as it is, we may see, alas ! every day. What 
 follows is, however, more startling. *' Many dress the female 
 figures in robes — a common practice still — and then make 
 them stand godmothers to their children(!). They offer up to 
 them the hair first cut off, just as the Heathen did. Some 
 presbyters scraped the paint from the images, mixed it with the 
 
THE DARK AGES. 
 DEIFICATION OF HEROES. 
 
 39 
 
 Apotheosis or Canonization Heathen. 
 
 Assumption Christian. 
 
40 ROME: PAGAN AND PAPAL. 
 
 Eucharist, and gave it in the Communion. Others put the 
 body of our Lord — that is, the bread — into the hand of the 
 images, and made the communicants take it thence." — Jortin, 
 vol. iv., p. 480. Such presbyters must have belonged to the 
 genus wooden, as given by Boniface in a bon mot attributed to 
 him. " Formerly," said he, " the Church had golden priests 
 and wooden chalices ; now she has wooden priests and golden 
 chalices." Boniface was an Englishman known as " the 
 Apostle of Germany," and, although he was canonized, 
 seems to have been a true servant of Christ. He was Arch- 
 bishop of Mentz, and, which is much more, a laborious 
 missionary among the Pagans, who murdered him in the 
 seventy-fifth year of his age, a.d. 755. "The day," said he, 
 " for which I have long waited is come ! " And so he departed 
 in peace — a saint passing to his rest. 
 
 We observed that he was canonized. This process, an 
 invention of the tenth century, was adapted from the custom 
 of deifying heroes so common among the ancient Greeks and 
 Romans. The illustrations on the preceding page will show 
 the similarity of Heathen and Christian apotheosis or assump- 
 tion. The first group is taken from a marble of the Empress 
 Faustina at Rome, as given by Montfaucon ; the second is 
 from a Roman Catholic picture representing the assumption 
 of our Lord's mother. The ceremony of canonization is 
 very costly, for the fees demanded at Rome are many and 
 large ; but the result is that the canonized person becomes a 
 saint. 
 
 I have before me a long alphabetical list, published at 
 Naples in 1846, and entitled Universal List of the Saints from 
 the Beginning of the World to the Present Time. It is im- 
 possible to number God's elect ; the Lord alone knoweth them 
 that are His, and they are a great multitude which no man 
 can number. Yet this list may be perfectly correct ; for Rome 
 can count her own saints : but that is"(|uite another matter. 
 
VIII. 
 
 A DEVICE OF MAN FOR II IS OWN SALVATION. 
 
 THERE is in Scripture the record of an anxious inquirer 
 who, nearly three thousand years ago, asked what he 
 could do to expiate his sins — ^how he could find peace for his 
 soul. The answer was that the Lord required him to do 
 justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with his God. 
 And so far as it went, this answer was good ; though we, with 
 our present light, would be able to refer such an inquirer at 
 once to " the Lamb of God, Who taketh away the sins of the 
 world." 
 
 Upon the conscience of this inquirer there was a burden of 
 guilt so heavy that he would have made any sacrifice to be 
 delivered from it. " Shall I," he cried, " give my firstborn for 
 my transgression ; the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul ? '' 
 
 And as it was with him, so throughout all generations it 
 ever has been, is, and will be, with every conscience-stricken 
 sinner. As soon as man feels a sense of sin, he will, if he be 
 ignorant of the Atonement which Christ has made, manifest an 
 earnest desire to find some way of expiating his iniquities, and 
 of recommending himself to God. This is the religion of 
 nature ; and it is ever conspicuous in Heathenism, which is the 
 outcome of nature. 
 
 As a rule, man is sure, sooner or later, to feel himself a 
 transgressor ; and, as a transgressor — if he be ignorant of the 
 One Atonement— he seeks to make expiation for himself. 
 Hence came self-inflicted tortures, scourgings, penance, priva- 
 tions, pilgrimages, and retirements to the hermitage or the 
 
42 ROME: PAGAN AND PAPAL. 
 
 cloister. And the universality of these religious practices — 
 common, as they are, to all countries and all times— prove 
 that they are no characteristic of particular races, tribes, or 
 classes ; but that they indicate a want felt by all humanity. 
 
 To meet this universal want, to calm the palpitating heart of 
 anxious men, and to guide their steps into the way of salvation, 
 God has given the glad tidings of His Word, which speaks peace 
 through the sinners' Friend, the Lord Jesus Christ. And how 
 stands the case? Man thinks he must do something to 
 recommend himself to God. No, says the Scripture : for in 
 the first place you can do nothing to recommend yourself; 
 nor, again, is there need, since you are already recommended. 
 Christ is your Saviour, and all that is to be done, or can be done, 
 has been accomplished by Him. Your part is but to believe 
 on Him : then His perfect atonement becomes effectual for you, 
 and His wealth of righteousness is put to your account. 
 " Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved." 
 
 Such, then, is God's simple and gracious method of salvation. 
 This is His way of peace and holiness, and He declares that 
 there is none other. Man, however, has many devices for the 
 attainment of the same end, and we will now say a few words 
 respecting one of these devices— that of self-inflicted privations 
 and pains. Look at these scourges. One of them is Heathen 
 — ancient Roman ; the other is Christian — modern Roman. 
 The former is from a marble in the Capitol Museum at Rome, 
 and is figured in F. Righetti's great work (plate 130). The 
 marble is very remarkable. It represents a priest of Cybele, an 
 archigalliis in full costume, with medals on his head and a 
 picture hung round his neck, displaying the sacred vitta or 
 garland, and bearing the aspcrgilluin, or pot of holy water, and 
 the whip which these priests' of " the Great Mother " were wont 
 to use upon themselves. This whip was a terrible instrument 
 of torture, similar to iheflage/li/^n, or metal-loaded scourge, with 
 which slaves were punished. The thongs, it will be noticed, 
 
A DEVICE OF MAN FOR HIS OWN SALVATION. 
 
 43 
 
 are loaded with small squares : these are bones — pastern, or 
 knuckle bones, kmicks — of sheep, which must have inflicted a 
 terrible punishment. 
 
 The other is from an original which I bought at Rome, in 
 the Lent of 1852, at the church of the Flagellants. It is a 
 severe instrument when applied to the bare back ; its length is 
 about two feet, and it is made of stout cord. There is a 
 
 Rome Pa?an. 
 
 Rome Papal. 
 
 peculiar way of using it which was once explained to me by a 
 French ex-Trappist. The operator kneels down and strikes 
 over his shoulders, right and left — over the right shoulder with 
 a back-handed blow. This is done rapidly, according to the 
 zeal of the flagellant ; and, I need not say, with a very painful 
 effect. 
 
 In the church at Rome the disciplina was at night, and was 
 thus arranged. The monks assembled and sat in the choir, 
 where I also sat with them, A few candles only were burning, 
 
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A DEVICE OE MAN FOR HIS OWN SALVATION. 45 
 
 just SO many as to enable the brother who handed round the 
 scourges to see his way. All the candles except one were then 
 extinguished, and by that feeble light I saw a little, while I 
 heard much, of what was going on. The brethren — some of 
 them at any rate, perhaps all — laid aside their garments and 
 commenced the discipline. The church resounded with the 
 strokes, but I heard no cries : all the monks were kneeling — 
 some thirty or forty, perhaps — on the choir floor, opposite 
 to each other. The exercise lasted some minutes ; then the 
 candles were relit, and we departed. A strange experience ! 
 
 Ill-tempered people will say that the flagellants lashed the 
 benches instead of themselves. I cannot tell. But the im- 
 pression left upon my mind was that the discipline was real ; 
 while the impression left upon my heart was sad and painful. 
 Every lash told me that " by His stripes " they were not healed ; 
 every reverberation echoing through the roof was a denial of 
 the glad tidings oifree salvation, for they by their pains and 
 penalties were seeking to purchase it. They were as those Jews 
 who, " going about to establish their own righteousness, did not 
 submit themselves to the righteousness of God " (Rom. x. 3). 
 While everything had been done for them by Another, they 
 were seeking to do everything for themselves : they were 
 stultifying the work of Christ, and raising up a righteous- 
 ness in opposition and antagonism to His. Such is the whole 
 monastic system. It is " another Gospel," a device of the 
 natural man for saving himself 
 
 Poor men ! My heart bled for them, and I longed to see 
 them delivered out of such Pagan darkness into the light of 
 the glorious Gospel of Christ. For what real difference is there 
 between the priests of Cybele, the Corybantes, or Galli, 
 scourging themselves to appease their deity, and these flagellant 
 monks ? They were both alike in worshipping, not the God of 
 Scripture, but a being of their own depraved and sensuous 
 imagination ; in following, not the guidance of God's Word, but 
 
46 ROME: PAGAN AND PAPAL. 
 
 the instincts of their own corrupt nature. In both cases the 
 worship was Pagan ; whether a pretence or a reality, it set 
 forth the shedding of man's blood as the ransom for man's sin, 
 and thereby ignored and trampled under foot the precious 
 blood which was shed at Calvary. 
 
 The flagellant priests of Cybele were, like the modern monks 
 who exercise the same vocation, ascetics ; and they were well 
 known in the same great city of Rome. x\sceticism — a term 
 derived from a Greek word which means discipliiie — together 
 with monkery, had its origin, like most other superstitions, in 
 the East. Thence it found its way to Rome and the West, at 
 the time of the introduction of the worship of Cybele from 
 Phrygia, if not earlier. There is a curious story respecting the 
 conveyance of the miraculous image of Cybele to Rome, very 
 similar to those which are told of other images of the same 
 character. The ship which brought it from Phrygia ran 
 aground in the mud at the entrance of the Tiber, and no power 
 could move it, until, so runs the story, a young girl — whose 
 character had been aspersed, poor thing — came, and, attaching 
 her veil to the galley, drew it miraculously into the river. 
 Such miracles are not uncommon in the region of superstition, 
 whether of ancient or modern Heathenism. Have you, reader, 
 been to Lourdes ? 
 
 Besides the Corybantes, there were other monkish priests at 
 Rome in early ages, such as those of Serapis the Egyptian 
 Nile-god, so famed for the magnificence and glory of his worship. 
 
 The great "high place" of this divinity was Alexandria, 
 where from an artificial mound rose the sumptuous temple 
 erected either by Alexander or by the Ptolemy who imme- 
 diately succeeded him. " There," says Milman, " all around 
 the spacious level platform, rose the habitations of the priests 
 and of the ascetics dedicated to the worship of the god. 
 The temple was ascended by a hundred steps ; and beneath 
 were the dark chambers used for orgies which would not 
 
A DEVJCE OF MAN FOR HIS OIVN SALVATION. 
 
 47 
 
 bear the light of day, and where the noblest and most beautiful 
 women were sacrificed to the lust of the officials of the 
 temple."— Milman, Bist of Christ, vol. iii., p. 68. 
 
 By the aid of torches I have visited some of these dark 
 subterranean precincts. Their vastness, no less than the fine 
 and delicate finish of all the huge stone-work of their formation, 
 amazed me. And what obscurity, coupled with what hopeless- 
 ness of escape ! Fitting places, indeed, for evil men and for 
 deeds of darkness. 
 
 Two instances have now been given of the early introduc- 
 tion of asceticism into Europe from the East. The practice 
 seems, however, to have found its way among us at a still more 
 remote period ; for it was one of the earliest and most wide- 
 spread manifestations of the corruption of pure and primitive 
 religion. 
 
 In Chaldea, Thibet, China, Japan, and in India, priestly 
 celibacy has been a custom from time immemorial, and the 
 history of those countries bears copious testimony to the 
 abominations which have flowed from it. In Athens there 
 were sacred virgins bound to celibacy ; and again in Scandi- 
 navia we hear of an order of nuns of noble family, whose duty 
 it was to keep alive the sacred fire. The similar office of the 
 Vestal Virgins at Rome, and the dreadful fate which awaited 
 them in case of incontinency, are well known. In Peru, under 
 the rule of the Incas, the same institution existed in the Virgins 
 of the Sun. " These," says Prescott, " were young maidens 
 dedicated to the service of the deity, who at a tender age were 
 taken from their homes and introduced into convents, where 
 they were placed under the care of certain elderly matrons, 
 — j/iamaconas, that is. Mother Priestesses — who had grown grey 
 within their walls." Their duty also was to keep watch over 
 the sacred fire ; and to be buried alive was, as in the case of 
 the Roman Vestal, their dreadful doom if their frailty yielded 
 to temptation. So, too, the incontinent nun of later times, 
 
48 ROME: PAGAN AND PAPAL. 
 
 when the mason had done his murderous work, found her 
 living tomb in the wall of the convent. 
 
 One cannot but think of the scene in " Marmion," which 
 depicts the end of poor Constance, — 
 
 " Sister, let thy sorrows cease ; " 
 
 and of the offending monk, — 
 
 " Sinful brother, part in peace." 
 
 In 1852, travellers on their road to Rome were shown a 
 skeleton so immured in a wall at Perugia. And Scott, in his 
 notes to " Marmion," mentions that "among the ruins of the 
 abbey of Coldingham were some years ago discovered the 
 remains of a female skeleton, which, from the shape of the 
 niche and position of the figure, seemed to be that of an 
 immured nun." 
 
 Execrable system, which first dooms its victims to an en- 
 forced celibacy, and then with irresponsible power, and in 
 secret tribunal, condemns them to the horrors of a terrible and 
 lingering death if they yield to the instincts of outraged 
 humanity ! Yet such is the system which many among us 
 would wish to see re-established in our own country ! 
 
IX. 
 
 CELIBATES AND SOLITARIES. 
 
 WHILES John the Baptist "came neither eating nor 
 drinking," and made his home in the wilderness, 
 our Lord " came eating and drinking," and dwelt among men. 
 Taking advantage of this fact, His enemies were wont to 
 say : " Behold, a man gluttonous, and a wine-bibber, a friend 
 of publicans and sinners ; " in other words, a sensualist and an 
 associate of the profligate and the vile. 
 
 Now, by following the solitary and ascetic life of John, and 
 declining the social life of Christ, the monastic system of 
 Christendom declares its choice of the former and its rejection 
 of the latter ; shows its preference of the Law to the Gospel, of 
 John to Jesus, of man to God. Monasticism is thus, from age 
 to age, a permanent witness to the fact that the wisdom which 
 is from beneath is opposed to the wisdom which is from above, 
 that man's plan of salvation is diverse from God's. 
 
 Monasticism repudiates marriage ; but it can find no Scrip- 
 tural authority for such a course. The first celibate and the 
 first solitary was Adam. But God said, "It is not good for 
 man to be alone " ; and so having formed Eve, He brought 
 her to Adam to be his companion and his wife. Rome, on the 
 contrary, affirms that the state of the solitary and the celibate 
 is the nearest to perfection. 
 
 God says : "Increase and multiply." Rome builds monas- 
 teries, and forbids to marry. 
 
 God says : " I will, therefore, that the younger women 
 marry, bear children, guide the house " (i Tim. v. 14;. Rome 
 
 4 
 
50 ROME: PAGAN AND PAPAL. 
 
 confines them within the gloomy walls of convents, and pro- 
 hibits obedience* to God's command. 
 
 And this the apostate Church does in the face of the 
 fact that our Lord honoured wedlock by His presence and 
 miraculous assistance at the marriage in Cana of Galilee — in 
 the face of the prophecy, "Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, 
 that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith . . . • 
 forbidding to marry " ! 
 
 Indeed, so reckless is Rome of Divine authority that she 
 pronounces the monastic life to be the perfection of Christianity 
 — the highest of all spiritual attainments. She styles it " the 
 religious life " pa?- excellence ; calls those who practise it " the 
 religious " ; and whether they be men or women, considers 
 .that they amass through their vows such a wealth of righteous- 
 ness and merits that they can spare some for others who are 
 not " rehgious " like themselves, and even for the souls in 
 purgatory. 
 
 But now comes the question, Why is Rome thus opposed to 
 marriage ? 
 
 Because by means of celibacy she is enabled to detach from 
 society, in all countries, a multitude of men and women whom 
 she uses to forward her own selfish interests and intrigues 
 to the detriment of society. Consider how vast a power she 
 wields throughout the ^hole world in those myriads of monks 
 and nuns who stand ever ready to do her bidding ! Nay, how 
 mighty an engine does she possess in that one department of 
 the system, the confessional ! Abolish celibacy, and you remove 
 her chief support and stay. Who, then, can wonder at her 
 earnest and impassioned appeals for its maintenance and 
 extension ? 
 
 But the question might be asked, Can you, then, pefceive 
 no good thing in connection with monasticism ? I should 
 be sorry to say so much as that. Nay, what chance would it 
 have had in the world unless there had been some good mingled 
 
52 ROME: PAGAN AND I'APAL. 
 
 with it ? It must have had something whereby to allure the 
 many excellent and honest individuals who have submitted 
 themselves to it; and to those who, despite the influences 
 brought to bear upon them, have rested, not on it, but on 
 Christ, it may have been sometimes beneficial. Often, for 
 example, amid the wars and massacres and anarchy of the 
 Dark Ages, cloister life provided an asylum for the persecuted, 
 the weary, the hopeless, and the ruined. And, to men and 
 women of a certain temperament, it must have presented great 
 attractions, promising as it did — and not always without some 
 fulfilment of the promise — a quiet and comfortable home, 
 the society, perhaps, of spiritual and intellectual companions, 
 opportunities for retirement, study, and devotion, time for the 
 cultivation of the contemplative life, and an absence of gnaw- 
 ing cares and of many of the temptations of the world. 
 
 But after all has been said, nothing can countervail the truth 
 of God. For the monastic life is, as we have seen, unlawful : 
 it is opposed both by the example of Christ and by the precepts 
 of His Word ; it is a retrogression from the liberty of the 
 Gospel to the bondage of the Law, from faith to works. Besides 
 which the system of monastic vows is sinful, and the forcible 
 detention of its ^•ictim through all the long years of life soon 
 becomes intolerable. The cloister, if you will ; celibacy, if you 
 will ; but no vows. God will have us to preserve our liberty. 
 " Be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage," is His 
 command : and how terrible a yoke have multitudes found 
 these vows to be ! No ; however well-intentioned, however 
 useful it may have been at the first, the whole system is wrong ; 
 and the vow should be broken as soon as the conscience, 
 through the Word of God, is convinced that it is sinful. 
 
 But monks and solitary ascetics are by no means confined 
 to the Romish Church. On the preceding page are representa- 
 tions of two anchorites ; the one Christian, the other Pagan ; 
 the one ancient, the other modern ; the one from Europe, the 
 
CELIBATES AND SOLITARIES. 53 
 
 Other from Asia. Both of them are inhabitants of the desert : 
 both are in a state of nudity, disgusting and pitiable objects : 
 both have their beads, which are more necessary to them than 
 clothing : both are holy men in the estimation of their co- 
 religionists, and bear the name of saints. 
 
 The first picture represents St. Giles, and is adapted from 
 Mrs. Jameson's JMonastic Orders. The second is taken from 
 a series of drawings " illustrating Hindoo Mythology," which 
 were lately lent to the South Kensington Museum by Colonel 
 Ouseley. The use of the chaplets, rosaries, or beads, which 
 may be seen in both pictures, is one of the many Heathen 
 practices which have been imported into Christianity. 
 
 I might add a description of two other such saints — 
 Mohammedans, and held in the highest veneration — from my 
 own personal observation. It was in Egypt that I saw them ; 
 the one was walking in the neighbourhood of a town ; the 
 other, whom I will describe, was seated near the Nile in Upper 
 Egypt, not far from a village where he had lived — so I was 
 told — for fourteen years. Both of these men were perfectly 
 naked. 
 
 Observing one day a number of people assembled at some 
 distance, I inquired what was going on, and, on being told 
 that a saint was the attraction, went to see him. I found the 
 holy man surrounded by about thirty men and women who had 
 their eyes fixed admiringly upon him as he sat upon the ground, 
 undraped — in the conventional language of art — and presenting a 
 disgusting appearance. His body was much covered with hair 
 of a reddish colour, while the hair of his head was like the wool 
 of sheep ; his skin, scorched by the fierce sun, was scorbutic 
 and scarlet ; his person was large and fat — these ascetics are 
 well supplied with food by the people; and his countenance 
 was sensual in the extreme. Such was the unclothed and 
 unwashed creature, dignified by the name of saint, which I saw 
 in the country where, in times long past, Simon the Stylite, and 
 
54 ROME: PAGAN AND PAPAL. 
 
 Other ascetics his predecessors, had in their ignorance degraded 
 and bestialized our common humanity. 
 
 The crowd of admirers which surrounded him were kissing 
 his hand • while the women touched his filthy flesh and then 
 kissed their finger, hoping thereby to receive some virtue in 
 regard to progeny. Even our dragoman, as well as some of the 
 ship's company, did the same as the others. The former I 
 rebuked for so doing, because I knew him to be a Syrian 
 Christian. " I beg your pardon, sir," said he, " I kissed my 
 thumb." 
 
 Kissed his thumb ! I remember, when a child in Devonshire, 
 hearing just the same thing said of a man who had been sworn 
 on the Testament in a court of justice. *' No ; he did not kiss 
 the book, he kissed his thumb." And so his oath was invalid ! 
 
 INIen are alike in all parts of the world : the astute Syrian 
 and the Devonian clown have the same nature, and the same 
 tendency to resort to subterfuge. And, because this is the 
 case, all men have, if left to themselves, one religion, that of 
 their common nature. Look at the two saints rei)resented 
 above, the European and the Indian, the Christian and the 
 Heathen : what difference is there between them ? Then 
 compare them with the saint of the Nile. Is not he, too, of 
 precisely the same type? European, Asiatic, and African, 
 differing as they do in nationality, language, colour, habits, and 
 faith, are yet, as unregenerate men, one in spirit ; and, being 
 ignorant of God's Word, carry out, each in his peculiar creed, 
 the leading instincts of natural religion. Our own fathers were 
 no better ; and had not the light of the gospel shone into our 
 hearts, we should be like them. " But for the grace of God, 
 there goes John Bradford," as that good man said when he saw 
 a criminal being led to execution. 
 
X. 
 
 MONKS AND MONASTERIES. 
 
 WE will now take a brief glance at the history of Monkery. 
 As we have before observed, it is of Pagan and very 
 early origin, " It maintained its authority among all the older 
 religions of the remoter East," says Milman {Hist, of Christ.^ 
 ii. 35). It was introduced into Europe from Asia, and was 
 commonly practised in various nations long before the Christian 
 era. It was also found to be existing in America when that 
 continent was discovered. Thus, the system was by no means 
 new or peculiar when it was introduced into the Church : it was 
 merely the adaptation of an old custom, which had been for 
 centuries connected with the worship of the Heathen gods. 
 
 It seems to have first crept into the Church in the following 
 manner : In earlier times, the Christians were cruelly perse- 
 cuted, and many of them fled, as well they might, into the 
 wilderness, and there supported life in whatever way they 
 could. 
 
 They must have lived in somewhat the same way as the 
 Heathen hermits did, and probably gave many hints to those 
 who came after them. But a little later, in the reign of 
 Constantine, the persecutions ceased, and a period of rest 
 followed ; bringing with it, however, a corruption so frightful 
 and so universal, that numbers of pious men were more alarmed 
 at the profligacy and wickedness of the world than they would 
 have been at its hostility ; and so, ignorant alike of what was 
 due to their God, to their families, and to their fellow-men, they 
 abandoned their station and their duties, and fled to join the 
 
56 ROME: PAGAN AND PAPAL. 
 
 hermits in the desert. Then a rage for celibacy and asceticism 
 set in. Marriage was reprobated, and true chastity was said 
 to be confined to the unmarried state ; while those who had 
 already entered into wedlock were taught that, if they would 
 attain to a high degree of holiness, they must thenceforth lead 
 separate lives. Many obeyed these teachings, receiving the 
 traditions of men rather than the Word of God. Thus, the 
 wilderness became peopled with anchorites, who soon began 
 to devote themselves, like the Indian Fakirs, to the most 
 terrible penances. It is stated that there were over 100,000 
 of these unfortunates in Egypt alone, in the fourth century. 
 Many of them were deeply in earnest ; but they were ignorant 
 of God's Word — the only source of light; and so they thought 
 to appease and please Him by their sufferings, in accordance 
 with that religion of nature which belongs to all of us, and 
 springs from an instinctive consciousness of guilt. 
 
 As the celibates and solitaries of the desert multiplied, they 
 began to form themselves into societies, and so, after a while, 
 the monastic system was developed. 
 
 Then different religious orders arose, the most important of 
 which was the Benedictine, so called from its founder Benedict, 
 who was born in Italy, a.d. 480. He was a most remarkable 
 man, and, as Sir James Stephen remarks, " A profound genius, 
 of extensive learning, and in the very first rank of legislators." 
 The fraternity which he founded, with its numerous branches 
 ramifying in all directions, exercised for centuries a vast in- 
 fluence over Europe, in theology, literature, agriculture, and 
 other matters. And, unlawful and faulty as monasticism is, 
 neverthelesSj in those early days, before its corruption had 
 passed all bounds, it certainly did confer great benefits upon 
 the surrounding barbarism and savagery of Europe. When 
 almost everything besides was vile, monkery, then in its prime, 
 was better. 
 
 Moving a little lower down the stream of time, we come, in 
 
MONICS AND MONASTERIES. 57 
 
 the thirteenth century, to those wonderful institutions, the 
 Mendicant Orders, which were also by their vows opposed to 
 the Gospel. These were the Franciscans, Dominicans, Augus- 
 tines, and Carmelites — the latter deriving their name from 
 Mount Carmel, in Palestine. 
 
 In regard to the two former, it was in the year a. d. 1216 
 that, without previous concert, Dominick the Spaniard, and 
 Francis of Assisi the Italian, met at Rome. The first of 
 these men was a fierce zealot, the other an amiable enthusiast ; 
 but both of them were wholly devoted to the Papacy, and they 
 had each conceived a new order of things by which to aid the 
 Pope in crushing heresy, in checking the uprisings of the 
 human mind, just awakening, as it then was, to the Gospel 
 after its long and deep slumber. Pope Innocent III. approved 
 of their schemes, and the two men bade each other farewell, 
 and departed from Rome " to divide," as Sir James Stephen 
 says, "the world between them." Well and rapidly did they 
 succeed. The ferocity of the followers of the one, acting 
 through the medium of the terrible Inquisition, and the gentle- 
 ness of those of the other, which everywhere provided access 
 for them to the homes of the people, combined to make their 
 work effectual and complete. 
 
 By a play on their name, the Dominicans were called Domini- 
 canes, the Lord's dogs, and the emblem of the community was 
 a dog with a firebrand in his mouth — uncleanness, ferocity, and 
 fire ! No one can dispute the aptness of the device ; for how 
 terrible were the fires kindled by that brand in Spain, the 
 Netherlands, Italy, Sardinia, India, and other places ! 
 
 As to St. Francis, violent proceedings were not congenial to 
 his mind ; he was too amiable and gentle. He dealt in visions, 
 revelations, and such things; nay, he would even preach to 
 the birds and the fishes, and one of his sermons to the former 
 is still extant. " Yet," says Sir James Stephen, " he would 
 draw up codes and canons with the precision of a notary." 
 
58 ROME: PAGAN AND PAPAL. 
 
 There is no doubt that by his influence, and that of his followers, 
 he greatly assisted in extinguishing the light of the Reformation. 
 A portrait by Sassetta represents him as trampling upon the 
 emblems of various vices ; and, among other things, upon a 
 printing press — the type, in monkish estimation, of heresy. 
 
 Later, and immediately upon the Reformation, came the 
 Jesuits, whose founder, Ignatius Loyola, a Spanish soldier, 
 died in a.d. 1556. It was mainly through the address, talents, 
 courage, and intrigues, of the members of this indefatigable 
 organization that the Papacy recovered so much of the ground 
 which it had previously lost. For, as Lord Macaulay observes, 
 " during the first half-century after the commencement of the 
 Reformation, the current of feeling in the countries on this 
 side of the Alps and of the Pyrenees ran impetuously towards 
 the new doctrines. Then the " tide turned, and rushed as 
 fiercely in the opposite direction. ... It is difficult to say 
 whether the violence of the first blow or of the recoil was the 
 greater." — Essay on Ranke's History of the Popes. 
 
 But the means used to bring about this "Catholic revival" 
 were very diverse. " The great effort," says Michelet, " of the 
 ultramontane reaction about the year 1 600 was at the Alps, in 
 Switzerland and Savoy. The work was going on bravely on 
 each side of the mountains, only the means were far from being 
 the same ; they showed on either side a totally different 
 countenance — here the face of an angel, there the look of a 
 wild beast ; the latter pliysiognomy was against the poor 
 Vaudois in Piedmont. In Savoy, and towards Geneva, they 
 put on the angelic expression, not being able to employ any 
 other than gentle means against populations sheltered by 
 treaties, and who would have been protected against violence 
 by the lances of Switzerland." 
 
 We will not, however, pursue the history of these orders any 
 further ; but wish to say a few words respecting the Benedic- 
 tii"te monastery of St. Alban, an essay on which is included in 
 
MONKS AND MONASTERIES. 59 
 
 one of the volumes of Froude's recent work, entitled Short 
 Studies on Great Subjects. 
 
 Among some old English records, which are now in the 
 course of publication under the authority of the Master of the 
 Rolls, are The Afinals of the Abbey of St. Aiban, the "wealthiest 
 and most brilliant of all the religious houses of Great Britain." 
 These annals were collected by the historian Walsingham. who, 
 having been himself a monk of the abbey, may probably be 
 trusted not to give what he would consider a bad character to 
 his Alma Mater. His details are very amusing and instructive. 
 
 According to tradition, St. Alban was the protomartyr of 
 Britain. He was a Roman citizen, and is said to have been 
 put to death during the Diocletianic persecution (a.d. 303) for 
 sheltering his friend Amphibolus, a deacon. In his honour, 
 and over the sumptuous shrine — a part of which is still existing 
 — supposed to contain his remains, and another shrine said to 
 be that of his friend, the present noble church was erected. 
 
 But did these persons ever exist ? Or has all this great 
 architectural display of shrines, monastery, and church, this 
 acquirement of lands and other possessions, a purely fictitious 
 origin, and is it merely due to the tricks of ignorant or design- 
 ing priests ? 
 
 I cannot tell. But there is no authority but tradition, and 
 we know how unreliable tiiat is. The whole story is extremely 
 uncertain, and one of the latest authorities, a contributor to 
 Smithes Dictionary of Christian Biography, writes, " St. Alban, 
 if ever he existed ;" while in reference to Amphibolus he adds, 
 " This is a twelfth century fiction." The name Amphibolus is 
 Greek, and in that language signifies a cloak : there are those 
 who think that this good Amphibolus is nothing more than the 
 saint's cloak/ 
 
 Why not? The mistake would be no more unlikely than 
 that which gave rise to the fable of St. Oreste, whose monastery 
 may be found on the mountain anciently called Soracte. You, 
 
60 ROME: PAGAN AND PAPA/.. 
 
 perhaps, know the story. Horace says of the old mountain : — 
 " Vides Lit alta stet nive candidum Soracte " (*' Thou seest 
 how deep with snow Soracte stands "). The name is now softened 
 into S. Oresti, with the S separated, which is the Itahan method 
 of writing "Saint." And in this manner a new saint, one of 
 very many, has been added to the Roman calendar, and a 
 monastery has been erected in his honour upon the mountain 
 which gave him birth and name. There the mythical Church- 
 god is now taking the place of the old Heathen god Apollo, 
 ofwhom Virgil writes, " Sancti citstos Sonicfis Apollo " (" Apollo, 
 guardian of holy Soracte"). — Virg., yEn. xi. 785. 
 
 St. Viar, a Spanish saint, has a similar parentage. An 
 ancient stone fragment was found with the letters S. VIAR 
 inscribed upon it. " A saint ! " they cry, and his fame is spread 
 abroad. The antiquaries, however, read the fragment other- 
 wise, and science laughed at superstition. The letters are 
 old Roman characters, and, if complete, would have read, 
 PrefectuS VIARum ; that is, in plain English, Overseer of 
 roads / The stone was a portion of an inscription in honour 
 of some Roman official connected with the highways. Such 
 is the story of St. Viar, and there are others of the saintly 
 brotherhood who might be shown to have as strange an origin. 
 
 But to return to the great church and monastery of St. Alban. 
 It was founded a.d. 793, by a murderer, the Saxon king 
 Ofifa, a descendant from Odin, who thought thereby to atone 
 for his crime. And the then Pope, Adrian I., himself as 
 ignorant as Offa, confirmed him in his error by giving him 
 license to found a monastery, " in tuorum peccatorum remis- 
 sionein " — " for the remission of your sins." 
 
 Of course there were the usual miracles leading to the dis- 
 closure of the spot where the relics of the saint were to be found. 
 And after their discovery they w-ere placed in a magnificent 
 shrine adorned with gold and jewels of such great value that a 
 gallery, or loft — which you may yet see — was erected close to it 
 
MONKS AND MONASTERIES. 6 1 
 
 for the watchers who guarded its treasures by day and by night. 
 If you visit it, do not forget to notice the curious stair of blocks 
 of ancient oak. In the shrine itself, and under it, you will 
 observe certain holes. These — the Guide to the Abbey tells us — 
 " were possibly intended for the admission of diseased limbs, 
 or of cloths to be applied to them, which, placed beneath the 
 martyr, might derive thereby some special virtue." 
 
 Much the same thing is done to-day at the famous tomb of 
 St. Antony in Padua. I have myself seen people rubbing their 
 heads up and down on the tomb, in the hope that some of the 
 goodness of the saint's dry bones might soinehow get through 
 the thick stone to them. It was a pitiful and sorrowful 
 sight. 
 
 But how were the relics of St. Alban discovered ? Heaven 
 lent its aid, and somebody had a dream ; in consequence of 
 which, bishops, monks, and priests were seen moving towards 
 the appointed spot in long procession, carrying banners, and . 
 chanting hymns. " Suddenly lightning flashed out of the sky, 
 and struck the ground before their feet. Then, terrain percutiunt 
 — they strike the earth ; and the bones of the saint were found 
 entire, and placed in a loculus, or box — Anglice, locker — inlaid 
 with gold and set with sapphires." 
 
 This is Papal Rome's manner of procedure in such cases, 
 and it is easy to show that she has borrowed it from Paganism. 
 How like, for instance, is the story of St. Alban to that of the 
 finding of the relics of Theseus as narrated by Plutarch. When 
 the Athenian Cimon was searching for these remains, it is said 
 that he espied an eagle breaking up the earth with its beak and 
 talons. He recognised this as a Divine omen, and, like Offa 
 and his ecclesiastics, at once began to dig. Of course he 
 found ; and the bones of the Hero were received at Athens with 
 as much gladness as those of the Saint at St. Alban's. 
 
 But we may carry out the parallel a little further. The 
 Pagans erected a magnificent temple called the Theseum over 
 
62 ROME: PAGAN AND PAPAL. 
 
 \.\\t relics of the Hiro, while over those of the Saint the 
 Christians built a noble church which they named St. Alban's. 
 And yet again, the Pagans celebrated the " invention " of the 
 bones of their god by setting apart a day in honour of the event : 
 the Christians, following them to the letter, commemorated 
 their discovery in the same "manner. Whether it be dealing 
 with heroes or with saints, the religion of nature is, in its objects 
 and manifestations, always the same. 
 
 St. Alban did not always remain in his box. Once upon a 
 time he manifested hinriself in the shades of evening to a monk 
 who was reciting his office in the church. A discussion was 
 being carried op in those days touching the identity of the con- 
 tents of the locker, and the monk was among the doubters. 
 But suddenly the shrine which contained it burst open, and an 
 awful form strode out of the obscurity, and stood before the 
 prostrate unbeliever. "■ Ecce, ego A/baniis /" "Behold, lam 
 Albanus ! Didst thou not see me issue from my tomb ? " 
 " Yea, Lord and Martyr," replied the monk. Whereupon the 
 blessed St. Alban went back into his locker — Beatus Albanus 
 rediit m lociilum. 
 
 The community of St. Alban's, like all other religious com- 
 munities, was best in its earliest days. Wealth, and those 
 invariable concomitants of wealth, luxury and idleness, worked 
 its ruin. That which at first showed so fair, became so foul 
 that its ill odour reached to Rome, " and shocked even the 
 tolerant worldliness of the much-enduring Pope." He, 
 Innocent VIII., enjoined Cardinal Morton to visit St. Alban's 
 and report upon it. The original of tlie report is now in 
 Lambeth Palace, and in it the Cardinal states that " the 
 brethren of the abbey were living in filth and lasciviousness 
 with the nuns of the dependent sisterhoods, the prioress of the 
 adjoining nunnery of Pray setting the example by living in 
 unrebuked adultery with one of the monks." There is much 
 more to the same effect, " the details of which cannot be quoted 
 
MONKS AND MONASTERIES. 6^ 
 
 even in Latin," says Froude, and with which I should be sorry 
 to defile this book. 
 
 Alas that our rulers in State and Church should have lately 
 selected a place so desecrated by pollution for the seat of a 
 Protestant bishop ! " The only reason for this arrangement of 
 the new diocese — which is inconvenient, and opposed to the 
 wishes of a majority both of clergy and of laity — is, so far as I 
 can see, the ecclesiastical fancy to revive the memory of St. 
 Alban." So writes to me a friend for many years an incumbent 
 in South London, which is now a part of the newly-arranged 
 diocese. 
 
 " To revive the memory " of one who probably never 
 existed ! Such is the present tendency to superstition in high 
 places in the Church ! Such is the outcome of the " spiritual 
 revival," falsely so called, of the last thirty years. A spiritual 
 revival in the Church of England I utterly deny ; an eccle- 
 siastical revival, hostile to what is spiritual, and delighting in 
 services, ceremonies, dresses, processions, congresses, priests, 
 bishops — provided they are favourable to it — and ecclesiasticism 
 generally, I admit. St. Alban's is a " consecrated place," which, 
 in the eyes of many, renders it sanctified. Froude declares 
 that it is stained by every crime, even to the sin of Sodom, 
 and was in the olden time "a nest of fornication, the very 
 aisles of the church being defiled with the abominable orgies 
 of incestuous monks and nuns." 
 
 Froude thus concludes his essay : " There is a talk now of 
 restoring St. Alban's. We are affecting penitence for the 
 vandalism of our Puritan forefathers, and are anxious to 
 atone for it. * Cursed is he that rebuildeth Jericho ! ' " 
 
XI. 
 
 THE SUPERSTITION' AND IMMORALITY OF 
 MEDIEVALISM. 
 
 SINCE there are so many who desire to restore the priestly 
 and monkish dominion of the Middle Ages, it is most 
 important that we should understand what it was. We will, 
 therefore, endeavour to get a few more glimpses of the religion, 
 and morality of that period. The following remarks of Hallam 
 are instructive.- 
 
 " In that singular Polytheism, which had been grafted on 
 Christianity, nothing was so conspicuous as the belief of per- 
 petual miracles. , . . Successive ages of ignorance swelled the 
 delusion to such an enormous pitch, that it was as difficult to 
 trace, we may say without exaggeration, the real religion of the 
 Gospel in the popular belief of the laity, as the real history of 
 Charlemagne in the romance of "Turpin." It must not be sup- 
 posed that these absurdities were produced, as well as nourished, 
 by ignorance. In most cases they were the work of deliberate 
 imposture. Every cathedral or monastery had its tutelar saint ; 
 and every saint his legend, fabricated in order to enrich the 
 churches under his protection by exaggerating his virtues, his 
 miracles, and consequently his power of serving those who 
 paid liberally for his patronage. 
 
 "That the exclusive worship of saints, under the guidance of 
 an artful, though illiterate, priesthood, degraded the understand- 
 ing, and begot a stupid credulity and fanaticism, is sufficiently 
 evident. But it was also so managed as to loosen the bonds of 
 
IMMORALITY OF MEDIEVALISM. 6$ 
 
 religion and pervert the standard of morality. . . . They — the 
 saints — appeared only as perpetual intercessors, so good-natured 
 and so powerful, that a sinner was more emphatically foolish 
 than he is usually represented, if he failed to secure himself 
 against any bad consequences. For a little attention to the 
 saints, and especially to the Virgin, with due liberality to their 
 servants, had saved, he would be told, so many of the most 
 atrocious delinquents, that he might equitably presume upon 
 similar luck in his own case. 
 
 "This monstrous superstition grew to its height in the twelfth 
 century." — Middle Ages (i860), vol. iii., pp. 298 — 300. 
 
 In a note Hallam gives some examples of the stories used 
 by the monks, from which we extract the following : — 
 
 " At the Monastery of St. Peter, near Cologne, lived a monk 
 perfectly dissolute and irreligious, but very devout towards the 
 apostle. Unluckily he died suddenly without confession. The 
 fiends came as usual to seize his soul. St. Peter, vexed at 
 losing so faithful a votary, besought God to admit the monlc 
 into Paradise. His prayer was refused ; and though the whole 
 body of saints, apostles, angels, and martyrs joined at his 
 request to make interest, it was of no avail. In this extremity 
 he had recourse to the Mother of God. ' Fair lady,' he said, 
 ' my monk is lost if you do not interfere for him.' . . . The 
 Queen-m.other assented, and followed by all the virgins, moved 
 towards her Son." 
 
 " The rest," says our author, " may be easily conjectured." 
 And he adds, " Compare the gross stupidity, or rather the 
 atrocious impiety of this tale, with the pure theism of the 
 Arabian Nights, and judge whether the Deity was better 
 worshipped at Cologne or at Bagdad." 
 
 We will quote one other story from the same source, in 
 which " the Virgin takes the shape of a nun, who had eloped 
 from the convent, and performs her duties ten years, till, tired 
 of a libertine life, she returns unsuspected. This was in con- 
 
 5 
 
66 ROME: PAGAN AND PAPAL. 
 
 sideration of her never having omitted to say an *' Ave " as 
 she passed the Virgin's image." 
 
 These and other examples are taken, Hallam tells us, from 
 a collection of " religious tales, by which the monks endea- 
 voured to withdraw the people from romances of chivalry." 
 Certainly this was casting out Satan by means of Satan. 
 
 Of a similar tendency is the story of St. Kentigern, who 
 figures in the armorial bearings of the city of Glasgow. It is 
 furnished to me by my friend Mr. Macgeorge, and is taken 
 from his Armorial Insignia of the City of Glasgo^v (Glasgow, 
 1866). 
 
 " The fish with the ring in his mouth" in the ancient seals of 
 the Bishopric of Glasgow, refers to the story of St. Kentigern 
 and the lost ring of the Queen of King Cadzan. It is given 
 in the office for the day of the saint in the Breviary of 
 Aberdeen. 
 
 " The Queen, enamoured of a certain knight, gave him a 
 ring which the king had before presented to her. The king, 
 aware of her unfaithfulness, got it from the knight, and, after 
 throwing it into the Clyde, demanded it from the queen, 
 threatening her with death if it were not produced. Having 
 sent her maid to the knight, and failed to recover the ring, 
 the queen despatched a messenger to Kentigern, telling him 
 everything, and promising the most condign penance. The 
 saint, taking compassion on her, sent a monk to the river to 
 angle, directing him to bring alive the first fish he might take. 
 This being done, the saint took from the mouth of the fish, 
 which was a salmon, the ring, and sent it to the queen, who 
 restored it to the king, and thus saved her life." 
 
 The crest of the city of Glasgow, adopted from this vile 
 story, is the saint vested as a bishop. On the shield is a 
 salmon on its back, holding up to the saint a ring in its mouth; 
 the supporters are two salmon, each with a ring in its mouth. 
 The whole fable is represented in the seal of Bishop Wyschard 
 
IMMORALITY OF MEDLEVALISM. 6/ 
 
 — made about a.d. 1271. The legend to the seal, on which 
 are figured the saint, the king, and the queen — but not the 
 knight — briefly tells the story: — ^'' Rex furit: Hccc plorat : 
 Patet aurum : Dum sa?icti/s orat." That is, in English, " The 
 king rages : she laments : the ring turns up : while the saint 
 is praying." 
 
 The hymn appointed for the 7iiore solemn altar service of 
 the saint's day thus sums up the story : — 
 
 " Moecha mosrens confortatur, 
 Regi reconciliatur, 
 Dum in fluctu qui jactatur 
 Piscis profert annulum." 
 
 Which, perhaps, may be freely rendered : — 
 
 "Saint queen and knight an evil union make 
 With monk, who, with a hook, the fish doth take. 
 The adulterous queen is by the saint consoled, 
 Who kindly cloaks her guilt, and brings the tell-tale gold." 
 
 The moral tone of this Scotch saintly story is not, it must 
 be confessed, higher than that of the two which have preceded 
 it. And even in the present day the Church of Rome seems 
 to have the same low estimate of her gods. 
 
 Some years ago, Ali Pasha, at that time governor of Egypt, 
 presented the Pope with some pillars of oriental alabaster for 
 the magnificent Basilica of St. Paul, which was then in process 
 of reconstruction. They were designed by the architect to 
 support the Baldachino, or canopy of the high altar, in which 
 position the reader. may now find them. In the winter of 
 1852 I was in Rome, and went to see them. They were lying 
 on the ground at the time, ready for erection, and splendid 
 monoliths they were. As I stood, with a group of friends, 
 looking at and admiring them, the old Cnstode, who was 
 exhibiting them, remarked, " I am sure the Virgin will never 
 allow those columns to be erected to the honour of St. Paul." 
 
68 ROME: PAGAN AND PAPAL. 
 
 "But why?" we asked. "Oh, she will be jealous," was the 
 reply; " she will want them for herself." 
 
 Thus calmly did the votary attribute the vile passion of 
 envy to his goddess. One is carried back to Homer and the 
 courts of Olympus, to the gods the greater and the gods the 
 less, to their squabbles, envies, intrigues, and uncleanness : 
 and one is moved to ask, — What difference is there between 
 gods Heathen and gods ecclesiastical ; between the Pantheon 
 of Olympus and the Pantheon of the Church ? 
 
 The courteous intimacy implied in the chivalrous phrase 
 attributed in our first story to St. Peter, when he addresses the 
 Virgin as " Fair lady," reminds me of an Irish fact — not story 
 — illustrative of the great familiarity existing between the gods 
 and their ministers. 
 
 I can vouch for its authenticity, having received it from two 
 independent quarters ; and one of my informants, an Irish 
 archdeacon who knew the persons concerned, has furnished 
 me with their names. 
 
 A Roman Catholic priest. Father James O'AI. of B ,while 
 
 taking a friendly glass with some of his brethren, was summoned 
 to attend a parishioner — a woman in child-bed at the point of 
 death. The priest dismissed the messenger with a promise of 
 speedy attendance, but at the entreaty of his friends, jolly 
 fellow that he was, he stayed to take another and another glass 
 of punch. More than once was the messenger sent away with 
 the same assurance. Again he appeared, not, however, for 
 the same reason as before, but to inform the priest that his 
 presence was not now needed, since the poor woman had just 
 passed away, without having received the last Sacrament of 
 the Church — Extreme Unction, the priest's passport to Paradise. 
 At first the priest was so agitated by the anger of his parishioner, 
 and so ashamed of his own neglect, that he forgot the power 
 he possessed over the invisible world. But, on recovering his 
 presence of mind, he told the man that there was no cause for 
 
IMMORALITY OF MEDIMVALISM. 69 
 
 alarm in regard to the departed, since he could make it all 
 right. Then, calling for a piece of paper, he wrote a few lines, 
 and screwing the paper tightly together, desired the man to 
 place it in the mouth of the corpse. At the same time he 
 charged him on no account to allow the paper to be opened, 
 or the charm would vanish and the soul be ruined. 
 
 The man went off satisfied, and so far all was well. But 
 unfortunately the curiosity of the doctor was excited, and he 
 felt a great desire to see what Father James had written on 
 the screw of paper. Accordingly he persuaded the nurse, and 
 at a convenient moment she secretly withdrew the paper, and 
 brought it to him. 
 
 " The words written on the paper," says the archdeacon in his 
 letter to me, " were these : * Dear Saint Peter, please admit 
 the bearer — she is a parishioner of mine ; ' and I think there 
 was something added about being late, owing to company. 
 Dr. H. saw the paper, and often told the story to the late 
 bishop, Mr. L. : and many a laugh Mr. L. and myself have had 
 over Father James and St. Peter ! " 
 
 However, the Irish priest had only followed the example of 
 no less a man than St. Gregory, called " the Great," of whom 
 Mrs. Jameson, in her Sacred and Legendaiy Art (vol. i., p. 323), 
 relates the subjoined story. 
 
 A monk under the excommunication of Gregory had died 
 unabsolved, and when the saint heard of it he was filled with 
 horror ; but at the same time was by no means without resource. 
 
 " He wrote upon a parchment a prayer and a form of 
 absolution, and gave it to one of his deacons, desiring him to 
 go to the grave of the deceased and read it there." 
 
 The charm — which seems to have been valid only if used in 
 a particular place, that is, at the grave — was successful ; for 
 " on the following night, the monk appeared in a vision, and 
 revealed to the saint his release from torment." 
 
 The following modern instances from the East, for the 
 
70 ROME: PAGAN AND PAPAL. 
 
 correctness of which I am able to vouch, are not inapt illustra- 
 tions of this kind of superstition. 
 
 A priest of the Greek Church was importuned to go to a sick 
 person, and being at play was unwilling to do so. " There," 
 said he, taking off his cap and giving it to the messenger, 
 " place that on the head of the sick man, and it will answer all 
 the purpose." The messenger went away well-contented ! 
 
 An indolent bishop of the same Church, too lazy to go to a 
 distant ordination at which a part of his duty was to breathe 
 on the candidates, adopted this expedient. Having procured 
 a couple of bladders and filled them with his breath, he 
 despatched them to the ordination, directing that puflFs from 
 them should be blown upon the heads of the candidates. 
 
 Such are a few specimens of medievalism as it was, as it is 
 still in many parts, and as some would have it to be again in 
 Protestant England — " which peril. Heaven forefend ! " 
 
 Before closing this chapter, let us glance for a moment at 
 the applicability of Hallam's remark on saint-worship to the 
 examples we have quoted. "It was also so managed," said 
 the historian, " as to loosen the bonds of religion and pervert 
 the standard of morality." 
 
 In the first instance, the profligate monk of Cologne dies 
 in his sins and irrepentant. Yet, because he has a friend 
 at court, and through favour of the Queeij of Heaven, he 
 escapes punishment. 
 
 The Virgin, for ten years, takes the place and duties in the 
 convent of the dissolute nun, and for what purpose ? That 
 the latter may live an a!bandoned life, undetected, as long as 
 she pleases. And, when she is tired of it, the Virgin puts her 
 back again into the convent, and enables her to re-appear 
 among her former companions as a chaste woman, nobody 
 having the least suspicion of what she had been doing. She 
 thus receives from her heavenly patroness the power to hood- 
 wink the conventual authorities, and the privilege of being 
 
IMMORALITY OF MEDIEVALISM. 7 1 
 
 able to spend the rest of her days in peace and lying 
 hypocrisy ! 
 
 In the third, St. Kentigern is exhibited as a patron of vice. 
 
 In the fourth, the old Custode of St. Paul's attributes envy 
 of the meanest kind to the Virgin, without a suspicion that he 
 is injuring her character. 
 
 In the fifth, the moral and religious tendency of Father 
 James' story is in every respect deplorable. 
 
 In the sixth, St. Gregory is proved to be Father James' 
 precedent and authority, both in magic art and in pious fraud. 
 
 Lastly, in the seventh and eighth instances, the conjuring- 
 cap of the card-playing Greek priest, and the bladders of the 
 idle Greek bishop — but of what use is it to make remarks on 
 such a tricky and amulet-kind of religion ? 
 
 There can be no question as to the truth of Hallam's saying. 
 Saint-worship does indeed loosen the bonds of religion and 
 pervert the standard of morality. And saint-worship ever has 
 been, and still is, prominent in the religion of Rome. 
 
XII. 
 
 CHARMS AS USED IN THE PAGAN WORLD. 
 Part I. 
 
 FROM the earliest times to the present hour the use of 
 charms or amulets has been universal. The strange 
 power of fascination which belongs to them is due, I conceive, 
 to the fact that the natural mind, being ignorant of God, 
 must have some object of veneration or superstition. Hence 
 the nations vi^hich have become enlightened by the teaching of 
 the Bible have, in a greater or less degree, cast off such follies ; 
 while the Church of Rome has retained them, together with 
 many other Pagan usages and customs, merely superadding a 
 drapery of Christianity. For she throws something, indeed, 
 over the nakedness of her Heathenism ; but it is a veil so 
 transparent that no practised eye is needed to detect the 
 (lentilism which lies beneath. 
 
 The following extract is interesting. 
 
 " It is curious to note in Rome how many a modern super- 
 stition has its root in an ancient one, and how tenaciously 
 custom still clings to the old localities. On the Capitoline 
 hill, the bronze She-wolf was once worshipped, as the wooden 
 Bambino is now. It stood in the Temple of Romulus, and 
 thither the ancient Romans used to carry children to be cured 
 of their diseases by touching it. On the supposed site of the 
 temple now stands the church dedicated to St. Teodoro. 
 Though names must have changed, and the temple has 
 vanished, and church after church has here decayed and been 
 
CHARMS IN THE PAGAN WORLD. 73 
 
 rebuilt, the old superstition remains, and the common people, 
 at certain periods, still bring their sick children to the saint, 
 that he may heal them with his touch." — Roba di Roma : quoted 
 in Hare's Walks in Rome., vol. i., p. 223, 
 
 We implied above that Romanism has not so much adopted 
 as continued Heathen usages. And such is indeed the fact. 
 Though called by the preaching of the Gospel to cast off 
 Heathenism, she still carried it with her in her profession of 
 Cliristianity, and made Christ, so to speak, a con-templar god 
 — or, fellow in the temple — with "gods many and lords many." 
 She forced the, in one sense, unsocial religion of Christ into 
 Heathen company, somewhat as the Emperor Alexander 
 Severus introduced the statue of Jesus among the deities of 
 his Lararium, or private chapel. 
 
 This will be shown as we proceed ; but, as an illustration of 
 her general spirit, I will here quote an inscription from an altar 
 in the cathedral at Luca. It is given in C. S. Bird's Romanism 
 (Hatchards, 1851), and runs as follows : — " Christo Liberatori, 
 ac Diis Tutelaribus ; " that is, " To Christ the Deliverer, and 
 to the Guardian Deities," the latter being those saints who 
 specially preside over Luca. The Heathenism of this will be 
 apparent to those who know that the titles here given to the 
 gods and heroes of the Church Pantheon are identical with 
 those given by the ancient Romans to their gods and 
 heroes. 
 
 The Lares have been already mentioned ; they were little 
 images representing the household gods, and were universally 
 used as charms. " To what extent they were employed in this 
 capacity," says Blunt, " may be guessed from the number of 
 small antique figures still existing — formed of bronze, ivory, 
 bone, and other materials — bored, and evidently intended to 
 be worn about the neck. 
 
 " In like manner, to this day, there is scarcely an individual 
 of the lower classes in Italy, or Sicily, who is not provided 
 
74 ROME: PAGAN AND PAPAL. 
 
 with an image, or print, of a favourite Madonna or Saint, 
 suspended from the neck. 
 
 "I remember a shop at Trepani, in Sicily, where the principal 
 stock consisted of figures of the Virgin of that place, carved 
 in bone, about an inch in length, and actually having no per- 
 ceptible difference from those in use among the Romans 
 eighteen hundred, or two thousand, years ago." — Vestiges, p. 40. 
 
 In 1877, the writer of this book bought one of these charms 
 in Rome ; it was made of bone, and perforated so as to be 
 worn round the neck of a woman ; being, in fact, a charm for 
 children. He gave it to the British Museum, since it was of 
 such a character that he did not care to keep it. Museums 
 are the proper depositories of such things, where they become 
 lasting witnesses of the foulness of Heathenism, and of the 
 truth of such statements as those in the first chapter of 
 Romans, and similar Scriptures. 
 
 In Dyer's Pompeii, p. 446, there is an engraving of a neck- 
 lace taken from a box which was found in the hand of a 
 female skeleton at Pompeii. The poor owner was evidently 
 fleeing with her little treasure when she was overwhelmed by 
 the outburst from the mountain. She seems to have been a 
 worshipper of Isis, since her necklace is composed of no less 
 than thirty-five pieces, all of which are consecrated to the 
 goddess and her belongings. Thirty-five charms, and yet 
 unavailing to ward off her doom ! Two of them are of the 
 same character as the one deposited by the writer in the 
 British Museum. 
 
 In the museum of the late Sir Richard Colt Sloane, at 
 Stourhead — and also in the British Museum — are some ///(?///, 
 which he obtained in 17 19 at the cathedral of Isernia, near 
 Naples, where they had been offered ex voto ! So that, up to 
 that time, at least, the worship of the obscene god Priapus 
 seems to have been continued' in Isernia under Roman 
 Catholic direction. 
 
CHARMS IN THE PAGAN WORLD. 75 
 
 But before we can compare the modern usages of Roman 
 superstition with early days, we must know something of the 
 Pagan doctrines and practices in regard to charms, and to this 
 end we will now devote a few pages. 
 
 The following translation from the eighth Eclogue of Virgil 
 will exhibit the popular ideas respecting charms some thirty or 
 forty years before the birth of Christ. The rendering is that 
 which was given in the Fortnightly Review, vol. xxii., p. 87. 
 
 " Bring forth water, and wind round this altar a soft woollen fillet. 
 Richest of vervain and strongest of frankincense burn on the altar. 
 These be the magic rites whereby the cold heart of a husband 
 Fain would I seek to entrance. 'Tis but the charm that is wanting ; 
 Back to his home from the city, my charms, draw the wandering Daphnis ! 
 
 " Charms have the power to draw down the truant moon from the heavens. 
 Circe by charms transformed the trusty band of Ulysses. 
 Crushed by the force of charms the cold snake lies dead in the meadow. 
 Back to his home from the city, my charms, draw the wandering Daphnis ! 
 
 " Like as this image of clay grows hard, and the waxen one liquid 
 Under the self-same fire, so let my love work upon Daphnis. 
 Sprinkle the cakes, and light up the crackling laurel with sulphur. 
 Daphnis burns me, and I burn this laurel, and wish it were Daphnis. 
 Back to his home from the city, my charms, draw the wandering Daphnis ! 
 
 " See how the quivering flames have laid hold of the horns of the altar ! 
 Now, while I dally, it burst forth unbid 1 Be the sign a good omen ! 
 Something is certainly there ! and Hylax barks on the threshold ! 
 Shall we believe it ? Or is it a dream from the brain of a lover ? 
 Stay, my charms ! From the city he comes, the wandering Daphnis ! " 
 
 But after all, the testimony of Virgil is comparatively modern. 
 Hgre is evidence of an earlier date. In the Swiss Lake of 
 Brienne are the remains of a prehistoric Lacustrine village ; 
 and there human skulls have been found, submerged in the 
 lake, with round pieces cut out of them " for use as amulets." 
 Bits of infants' skulls were once used for this purpose, and were 
 " put inside the heads of the dead to protect them from evil 
 beings in the world of spirits. The same custom prevailed 
 among the American Indians of Michigan, and in the South of 
 
']6 ROME: PAGAN AND PAPAL. 
 
 France, in Sweden, Germany, and Austria." — The Times, Nov. 
 1 6th, 1878. Charms, then, were known even in the prehistoric 
 period, and when we come into historic times, they may be 
 traced in every country. Ancient Egypt bears witness to their 
 use. Examine the mummies in the British Museum, and you 
 will find them fortified with amulets. I have counted as many 
 as twenty upon one mummy. 
 
 Assyria also, in her recently discovered literary treasures, 
 brings the same fact to light. The talismanic principle is to 
 be seen in her very careful arrangement of lucky and unlucky 
 days ; and her monarchs wore talismans upon their persons, as 
 their disinterred statues reveal. 
 
 Again, in Persia, similar customs prevailed ; for we read that 
 Haman (b.c. 520) was casting lots for a whole year before he 
 could hit upon a lucky day for the destruction of Mordecai 
 and his nation. — Esth. iii. 7. 
 
 In Asia Minor, we have — say ten centuries before Christ — 
 the Palladium of Troy, an image of the goddess Pallas con- 
 sidered to be a charm of such power that until it was removed 
 the city could not be taken. So Ulysses and Diomedes, as the 
 story runs, contrived to steal it. Again, at Ephesus, the figure 
 of Diana, " the image that fell down from Jupiter " (Acts xix. 
 35), was also a talisman. 
 
 Passing from Asia into Europe, we find,' some seven centuries 
 before Christ, the wondrous Ancile in the palace of the second 
 king of Rome, that shield " not there conveyed by mortal 
 hands," the sure pledge of empire. To protect the treasure 
 from theft on the part of such rogues as Ulysses, " fertile in 
 counsel," and his not very respectable friends, Numa caused 
 eleven other shields to be made exactly similar to the Ancile, 
 and committed the whole twelve to the twelve Saliiy or leaping 
 priests of Mars. 
 
 While in Dresden, in 1S79, 1 saw, in the Museum on the other 
 side of the Elbe, a good illustration of the first line quoted 
 
CHARMS IN THE PAGAN WORLD. 77 
 
 above from Virgil, " Wind round this altar a soft woollen fillet." 
 It is "a triangular pedestal of a candelabrum in Pentelican 
 marble." 
 
 On it are three sculptures in low relief, very arresting. In 
 the first of them Hercules, bad fellow, steals a tripod ; and 
 Apollo pursues him. A pretty pair ! 
 
 In the second, which contains the illustration, a priest with 
 flowing hair and long cloak, and a young priestess in a Doric 
 robe, are consecrating a torch, perhaps for a torch race : both 
 are standing on tip-toe, in accordance with the ancient custom 
 of officiating priests. A bowl is set to catch what may fall 
 from the torch, and both torch and bowl are bound round with 
 fillets. But another feature of the picture interested me more 
 than the illustration of Virgil, because it exhibited a modern 
 priestly act to which I may again refer. This was the very 
 peculiar position of the fingers of the consecrating persons in 
 holding the fillets. " The priest with his right hand, the 
 priestess with both hands, touch the torch in a sacred manner, 
 holding up the third, fourth, and fifth fingers, the thumb and 
 forefinger being crossed (priore digito in erectum pollicem 
 residente)." 
 
 In the third picture, we have again both priest and priestess ; 
 but the latter alone is in the act of consecrating a tripod, with 
 the same peculiar arrangement of the fingers and thumb of the 
 right hand. 
 
XIII. 
 
 CHARMS AS USED IN IVIE PAG AM WORLD. 
 
 Part II. 
 
 AS we move on down the stream of time, the number and 
 variety of amulets and charms increases. We will now 
 notice a few of them, and may begin with the charm which was 
 worn by all, or nearly all, of the Roman youth. 
 This — it was not of a very delicate character — 
 was enclosed within a small globe of metal or 
 leather called the bulla, and was hung round the 
 neck, just as in the present day the Neapolitan 
 or Spanish peasant wears his charm. 
 
 Then, again, bells, when jingled, were con- 
 sidered by the ancient Romans to act as a 
 powerful charm for the driving away of evil 
 See Rich's Die, p. 666. 
 
 Genii. 
 
 "tunsaque concrepat sera, 
 Et rogat ut tectis exeat umbra suis " 
 
 Ovid, Fasti, v. 4. 
 
 " The bells he jingles, and requests the shade 
 That speedy exit from his roof Ije made." 
 
 This superstition still prevails in Italy. "Why are the 
 church bells making that noise? "said an inquirer to a peasant 
 of that country. The answer was, " Per cacciare il Diavolo, 
 Signore " — " To chase away the Devil, Sir." 
 
 Bells were very common among the Romans. In the 
 Museum at Naples are several from Pompeii. The writer has 
 
CHARMS IN THE PAGAN WORLD. 
 
 79 
 
 an old Roman bell which he obtained at Perugia : its shape is 
 
 nearly square ; it is made of bronze with an iron clapper, and is 
 
 fairly sonorous. It stands three 
 
 or four inches high, and may, 
 
 perhaps, have been worn by 
 
 cattle. 
 
 Lustral, or Holy water, was 
 also used by the Heathen as a 
 charm for the purification of 
 persons, of houses, and of temples. At the gate of the Pagan 
 temple stood a vessel filled with it for the use, as in modern 
 Roman Catholic churches, of those who entered. At funerals, 
 too, the Heathen used this charm just as their Church suc- 
 cessors do now. So Virgil (y£//. vi. 229-31), in describing the 
 obsequies of Misenus, says of ^neas : — 
 
 " From branch of olive thrice the holy clew 
 Of lustral water sprinkling on the crew, 
 The men he puyified." 
 
 The use of candles at funerals is another Heathen custom, 
 though now adopted by the Roman Church. Rich {A?-f. 
 Candela) proves this from Varro, and gives an illustration from 
 a sepulchral marble at Padua. 
 
 On leaving home for a journey, a Roman 
 Would repeat some verse or incantation, as 
 a protection from evil. t3 
 
 For the same purpose he would also 
 habitually carry some small image, or other 
 sacred object, suspended from his neck. Thus it is recorded 
 of Sylla that " he wore, and used to invoke, a little golden 
 Apollo hung round his neck" (Hare's i?^;;;^, p. 224); which 
 reminds one of Louis XI. of France, who was wont to wear his 
 "gods protectors" — i.e., saints — leaden though they were, in 
 his hat ! 
 
 A magic property was also imputed by the Romans to coral, 
 
80 ROME: PAGAN AND PAPAL. 
 
 a branch of which was thought to be eminently efficacious in 
 affording health and protection to infants. See Blunt's Vestiges, 
 chap. X., where Pliny is quoted and mentioned as having been 
 " most industrious in recording the charms of his own time." 
 
 Did you ever, reader, drive from Perugia to Assisi ; or from 
 the station on the Ferrara and Bologna line to Cento, to see 
 the Guercinos in that little town ? (As regards the pictures of 
 the illustrious artist, however, to examine which was my sole 
 object in visiting the town, I confess I was disappointed.) 
 Well, then, you may have noticed that the road to each of the 
 two places abounds in charms. "What are all those slender 
 wooden crosses stuck in the fields ? " I asked my rustic com- 
 panions in the public carriage. " What are they for?" "To 
 drive away the devil, and evil spirits ; and the pictures of saints 
 you see in the trees are, Signore, for the same purpose." 
 
 Two thousand years ago, for the same purpose, there used 
 to be suspended in the fields — what ? Masks of Bacchus ! 
 Now crosses and pictures of saints have taken their place. 
 And not only in Italy : for I have seen the same charms in the 
 fields north of Munich. 
 
 Of the Heathen usage, the suspension of oscilla, or little 
 masks, there was a good illustration in the Exhibition of the 
 Royal Academy of 1879. It was in a small and charming 
 picture of a Pomona Festival by Alma Tadema. In the British 
 Museum one of these faces of Bacchus is preserved with the 
 ring attached to it by which it used to be suspended. 
 
 Another talisman of Heathen Rome is the lightning of 
 yupiter, which is represented on the opposite page, from a 
 medal of Augustus. 
 
 I give this from Du Choul, who informs us that " the 
 Heathen— /^j G^ot/ZA— held it in singular estimation, ... be- 
 lieving that after it had been consecrated by the Chief Pontiff 
 —for the consecration of such things by a priest belongs 
 as much to Heathendom as to Christendom— it preserved 
 
CHARMS IN THE PAGAN WORLD. 8 1 
 
 from tempests, and possessed a certain virtue." — La Religion 
 des Anciens Jiomains, p, 2S6. The "S. C." on the medal is, 
 I beheve, for Saiatus consulto — " by decree of the Senate." 
 
 To pass on to more modern times, since the next chapter 
 will treat of the ages intervening, we quote the following in 
 regard to Heathen America. 
 
 "The Spanish missionaries in the fifteenth century were 
 amazed to find the cross as devoutly worshipped there as by 
 themselves. It is not generally known that the cross is originally 
 and properly a Heathen emblem, perhaps the most ancient and 
 
 most universal of any throughout the world, east or west, 
 north or south. The Spaniards found it everywhere in America, 
 and made of every material. It figured on the vestments of 
 priests, and was worn as an amulet by the people. ... It 
 was beheved among the inhabitants both of north and south 
 to be endued with power to restrain evil spirits." — The 
 Pre-Christian Cross, Edin. Review, Jan. 1870. 
 
 Here, again, is something respecting China, taken from 
 Picart's History of all Religions, vol. ii., p. 214. 
 
 " Navaretti informs us that the Chinese, after sacrificing to 
 Confucius, carry home what remains of the sacrifice, which is 
 
 6 
 
82 ROME: PAGAN AND PAPAL. 
 
 given especially to the children, in hope that it will make them 
 become great men." In other words, the consecrated elements 
 are expected to act as a charm. 
 
 An artillery officer, related to myself, told me that, in the late 
 Chinese war, he was present when a Tartar, badly wounded, 
 was brought in as a prisoner. Though the poor fellow expected 
 little mercy, his great anxiety was, not for his own safety, but 
 for that of something which he wore suspended round his neck 
 — his charm. This, and terror lest it should be taken from 
 him, seemed to occupy all his thoughts. 
 
 Lately there appeared in some English journals a piece of 
 advice to distressed Chinese, copied from a Chinese newspaper. 
 Certain wags had been making free with some native tails by 
 removing them from the heads of the proprietors. The result 
 was a general feeling of insecurity and alarm ; and how did the 
 journalist endeavour to allay it ? By suggesting a charm ! 
 Meet these foreign devils, said he, thus : — Fold such a paper 
 in such a manner, carry it on your person, and your tail is 
 safe. 
 
 The kind of charm referred to — that is, written paper— \s 
 also very commbn among the followers of Islam. I have by 
 me several specimens which I obtained from one of the crew 
 of the Nile boat, a Hadji, or pilgrim who had been to Mecca, 
 and so, according to Mohammedan ideas, had become a holy 
 man. He wore them on his person. They are of leather, 
 about two inches square, and contain bits of paper. 
 
 Fifteen hundred years ago the learned Heathen author 
 Quintus Sammonicus recommended the same kind of amulet. 
 Letters were to be written in a peculiar form upon several 
 pieces, and "then," said he, "tie them together, and hang 
 them by a linen thread to the neck of the patient." 
 
 tn the Graphic of February 22nd, 1879, appeared an illustra- 
 tion by their artist in Affghanistan, the subject of which was 
 ' Camels passing under the Koran." The explanation given is 
 
CHARMS IN THE PAGAN WORLD. 83 
 
 as follows : — " Returning from pasture, camels are driven every 
 Thursday evening — their Saturday night — under the Koran, 
 which, placed in a turban, is suspended between two lances. 
 The drivers are most particular to see that every camel passes 
 under the book. It is a charm against sickness and other evils." 
 
 The evil eye is well known as a charm of malignity which must 
 be met with more potent charms. It was lately stated in the 
 Athenmim, in reference to Holman Hunt the painter, that " his 
 models in Jerusalem had all forsaken him, having taken it 
 into their heads that they were under the influence of the 
 charm." 
 
 I have myself had a similar experience in the same country. 
 On the high lands of Benjamin, at Jeremiah's town, Anathoth — 
 a wretched desolate place, where, however, there is a fine 
 Roman pavement — I was looking compassionately upon a sick 
 sheep. The owner at once became very angry, because, as our 
 Dragoman told me, he considered that my evil eye injuriously 
 affected his property. 
 
 A recent number of the Jewish Chronicle, i n giving an 
 account of the inauguration of the religious head of a sect 
 of Jews at Jerusalem, informs us that the new dignitary was 
 protected from the evil eye by hands dipped in the blood of 
 a sheep just slaughtered, the mark of the ten fingers being 
 imprinted on his door. The Chronicle also states that at 
 Tangier a red hand, painted outside a door, is a favourite 
 charm for the same purpose. 
 
 The belief that some had power to injure by their look was 
 as prevalent among the ancient Greeks and Romans as among 
 the superstitious of modern times ; and the evil eye is 
 frequently alluded to by the Classical writers ; as, for instance, 
 in the following verse of Virgil {Ed. iii. 103) : 
 
 " Nescio quis teneros oculus mihi fascinat agnos." 
 " Some unknown eye does fascinate my lambs." 
 
 Various amulets were used to avert its influence, the most 
 
84 ROME: PAGAN AND FA PAL. 
 
 common of these being the />/ia////s — the turpicula res of Varro 
 — hung round the necks of children. See Smith's Diet. 
 Ant., Art. Fascinmn. 
 
 An Irish correspondent of mine writes to me as follows : — 
 " The Church has continued these charms, of which some are 
 decent, some the contrary ; and many of them are, or were, 
 placed in churches. I am told that several taken from old 
 churches are in the museum at Dublin. They are statues of 
 naked women which were formerly placed over the entrance 
 doors of the buildings as lucky objects." If the eye rested on 
 them the first thing in the morning, it was supposed that a 
 person Avould be free from bad luck for the rest of the day. 
 They were called Shela-na-gigs. 
 
 What the Shela were to the outside, that St. Christopher is to 
 the inside of the church, his decent and respectable figure being 
 often painted on the wall opposite the door, to catch the eye of 
 the worshipper as he enters, " for good luck." Hence the old 
 distich, the original Latin of which I regret that I have mislaid: — 
 
 " Betimes to see St. Christoph is good luck : 
 That day shall see thee by no evil struck." 
 
 Lastly, Fetish, so common in Africa, is a widely-spread charm, 
 constituting the whole religion of many peoples. In Maa/iillans 
 Magazine for July, 1878, we are informed by Max Miiller that 
 " the Portugtiese mariners first gave the name of Fit-igos, i.e., 
 Fetish, to the ornaments worn by the Negroes of the Gold 
 Coast, because they themselves were perfectly familiar with the 
 Fici-tigo {sic) or amulet." Indeed, since they all carried crosses 
 or beads blessed by their priests they were themselves, in a 
 sense, fetish worshippers. 
 
 Ample evidence has now been laid before the reader to show 
 the antiquity, universality, and continuity in the human family, 
 of the use of charms ; to prove that, belonging, as it does, to 
 all nations and all times, its universal development manifests a 
 
CHARMS IN THE PAGAN WORLD. 85 
 
 universal principle inherent in the human race ; that principle 
 being the kind of superstitious reverence which forms so large a 
 part of the Religion of Nature. 
 
 In the following pages we propose to demonstrate how fully 
 this principle is recognized and sanctioned in the Church of 
 Rome. 
 
XIV. 
 
 USE OF CHARMS IN 7HE CHURCH OF ROME. 
 
 Part I. 
 
 OUR sphere is now more limited than in the two previous 
 chapters : we have to consider the use of charms in the 
 Church of Rome. 
 
 In speaking above of " the Hghtning of Jupiter," we quoted 
 
 Du Choul, as testifying to the great power attributed to it by 
 
 the ancient Romans. And, from the same author, we gave a 
 
 cut of the charm as imprinted upon a medal of Augustus. 
 
 We now subjoin a representation of a modern charm, equally 
 
 potent, taken from another learned Roman Catholic author 
 (luoted in Picart. It is the Agnus Dei, and forms a good 
 pendant to Du Choul's *' lightning of Jupiter." 
 
CHARMS LV THE CHURCH OF ROME. 8/ 
 
 The Agnus Dei, that is, Lamb of God, is " a medal made 
 of wax mixed with oil and balm," on which is stamped " The 
 Lamb and Flag," the well-known device of that once powerful 
 and profligate order of monk-warriors, the Templars. Together 
 with " The Saint Petershead," " The Salutation," and one or 
 two similar subjects, it yet figures among us as the sign of a 
 public-house. 
 
 From Du Choul we have already learnt in how great estima- 
 tion the Romans held "the lightning of Jupiter," as a protection 
 against tempests, and as possessing "a certain virtue." He 
 also tells us (p. 285) that " the little Agnus Dei when blessed, 
 and bells when consecrated, obtain virtue, the one to drive 
 away tempests, the other to expel evil spirits." 
 
 The " little Agnus," then, takes in the Church the place and 
 efficacy of " the lightning of Jupiter," so far as the weather is 
 concerned ; while the bells, able even in Ovid's time to fray 
 the ghosts, are equally potent in the spirit world. 
 
 Here are influences exerted upon the natural and the super- 
 natural ! But why are the bells, and not the Agnus, supposed 
 to be capable of the hardest work ? 
 
 Perhaps on the score of the length of their pedigree ; for 
 the bells were originally well-known Heathens, though they are 
 now baptized Christians. You are doubtless aware that bells 
 are baptized. But the Agnus only appeared in comparatively 
 recent times, to take the place of the Heathen " lightning of 
 Jupiter," which could not be baptized. So the bells keep their 
 own : they are now in the Church just what they were thousands 
 of years ago in Heathendom, whereas the Agnus is only an 
 interloper, lately come into fashion. 
 
 To the passage quoted above, Du Choul adds : — " In like 
 manner, salt and water — that is, holy water — by means of 
 benediction and exorcism obtain force and virtue to chase away 
 evil spirits " — the same power as that which is attributed to the 
 bells. 
 
88 ROME: PAGAN AND PAPAL. 
 
 But how very strange that salt-and- water should be able 
 " to chase away evil spirits ! " Is this anywhere mentioned 
 in Scripture ? 
 
 Scripture ! No. But who supposes that Church ways and 
 doings have any necessary connection with Scripture ? Nay, 
 the priest, the charmer, and the charms — these are more to the 
 point ; these are the powers which put virtue into " the salt 
 and water," into the " benediction and exorcism ; " that which 
 avails is the incantation, the " Double, double, toil and 
 
 trouble." 
 
 " When in Salamanca's cave 
 Him listed his magic wand to wave, 
 The bells would ring in Notre Dame." 
 
 And there is nothing which the priest cannot do. Of late 
 years, since a.d. 12 15, he has even taken to assert that he can 
 turn a morsel of bread into God Himself ! He does it — so he 
 says — every day, though his senses and ours declare the false- 
 hood of the assertion. 
 
 But to return to the Agnus Dei. If the Heathen Pontifex 
 Maximus could by consecration infuse such power into his 
 charm, " the lightning of Jupiter," we may well suppose that 
 the consecration of his successor, the Church Pontifex, would 
 bestow no less virtue upon the Agnus Dei. The following 
 doggrel verses, a literal translation of the old French in Picart, 
 will leave us in no doubt upon this head. They were sent by 
 PoTie Urban V. to the Greek emperor, to explain to him the 
 value of an Agnus Dei, in order that he might properly appre- 
 ciate three with which the Pope at the same time presented 
 
 him. 
 
 ' ' Thunder it chases, 
 
 Sin it effaces, 
 
 From fire it saves, 
 
 And flood when it raves. 
 
 Sudden death shuns it, 
 
 Devils revere it. 
 
 Enemies fear it. 
 
CHARMS IN THE CHURCH OF ROME. 89 
 
 Far from danger are set 
 Both children and mother 
 Who to make it are met. 
 Where good is found, 
 It makes it abound. 
 Big pieces or small 
 Are alike good to all." 
 
 So the spell of the Pope is even more efficacious than that 
 of the Heathen. And after all, the Agnus must be as potent 
 as the bells, and more so still ; for, " sin it effaces." 
 
 But how subservient to the priesthood must the laity have 
 been, that the former could dare, in the person of their chief 
 and in the name of religion, to palm off such barefaced lies 
 upon the vi^orld ! What an illustration of the ancient saying, 
 "The people wills to be deceived. Deceived they shall be." 
 
 Modern Heathenism also has its parallel to the Agnus. The 
 following account of what has lately happened in Thibet is 
 taken from the Illustt'afed Missionary Nezt's, 1879. 
 
 " A priest of Laboul had died, one who would, the people 
 considered, be reckoned among the gods. So, after having 
 burnt his body, they mingled the ashes with clay, from which 
 small medallions were made, distributed everywhere, and kept 
 in sacred places." 
 
 Thus, the customs of Heathenism, ancient and modern, "the 
 lightning of Jupiter," and the medallions of Buddha, form with 
 the Agnus of Papal Rome a trio alike illustrative of the natural 
 religion, which is the basis of them all. Neither in Rome nor 
 in either of the other false systems is there any power to rise 
 from the grossness of sense to the spirituality of faith. The unre- 
 generate man can deal only with the tangible and the sensuous ; 
 beyond this he has no perceptions, no capacity of reception. 
 " Can a man enter a second time into his mother's womb, and be 
 born?" "Show us the Father." "Except I shall see in His 
 hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of 
 the nails, and thrust my hand into His side, I will not believe." 
 
XV. 
 
 USE OF CHARMS IN THE CHURCH OF ROME. 
 
 Part IL 
 
 WE will now adduce a few more instances of the use of 
 amulets. 
 
 Just as Sylla, the Dictator (d. B.C. 68), consulted a little 
 Apollo hung round his neck, so Pope Gregory XIV. (a.d. 
 1590) put his trust in a figure of St, Philip Neri, "by which 
 image he believed that his life was saved in an earthquake at 
 Beneventum." — Hare's Rome, vol. ii., p. 168. 
 
 In Spain, during the age of chivalry, a knight was not 
 allowed to enter the hsts until he had made a declaration that 
 he had no relic or charm upon him. Ford, in his Handbook 
 for Spain, informs us that even now, few Spanish soldiers go 
 into action without such a preservative ; that the Duchess of 
 Abrantes hung the Virgin del Pilar round the neck of her 
 favourite bull-fighter, who escaped in consec^uence; and that 
 Jose, his own guide, attributed his frequent escapes from 
 danger to an image of the Virgin which never quitted his 
 shaggy breast. 
 
 Spanish robbers, Ford adds, have always been " remarkably 
 good Roman Catholics." They, too, wear their charms; 
 while " Italian banditti always wear a silver heart of the 
 Madonna." — Vol. ii., p. 192. 
 
 In the Times of Sept. 2 ist, 1879, the Naples correspondent 
 wrote as follows : 
 
 " The fanatics, who are the observers of the superstitions 
 
CHARMS IN THE CHURCH OF ROME. 91 
 
 practised in Naples, are those who supply the most abundant 
 materials for the police courts. Crime and superstition go 
 hand-in-hand. The brigands who were taken red-handed in 
 this province were invariably found to have rosaries and relics 
 around their necks." 
 
 I remember a painful example of this confidence in amulets 
 at Devonport a few years ago, in a case in which it would not 
 have been expected. It was that of an aged and well-known 
 clergyman, who on his death-bed held a consecrated medal 
 with the greatest tenacity. 
 
 " Mary," said a Protestant minister to a sick convert from 
 Romanism, "what are you doing?" She had been fumbling 
 with something under the bedclothes while he was reading the 
 Scriptures, and made no reply to the question. It was, how- 
 ever, repeated, and at last tlie truth came out in the shape of 
 some medals, and other consecrated toys, which she had been 
 keeping about her. "And must I give them up ? " she said in 
 a pitiful voice. " Yes," he replied, " Christ will not share 
 your heart with idols." 
 
 But this case is surpassed by that of two educated English 
 ladies of my acquaintance who were not satisfied unless they 
 had a crucifix in their bed — I suppose as a charm ! 
 
 The following story, which I heard from an Indian judge, 
 is a good instance of the trust which superstitious minds put 
 in these charms. About forty years ago, my friend stayed 
 at Rome on his way to the East, and presented a letter of 
 introduction to Bishop Baggs, honorary chaplain to the Pope. 
 He had frequent intercourse with the bishop, who evinced 
 great anxiety to win him to " the true faith," and on one 
 occasion said, "Will you wear this medal for nine days, 
 while I and others pray for your conversion ? " Some virtue in 
 the medal was to dispose him to conversion ; but it did not, 
 and he remains a good Protestant up to the present time. 
 
 The following extract from Sterling's Cloister Life of 
 
92 ROME: PAGA.Y AND PAPAL. 
 
 Charles V. illustrates the influence of charms over a great 
 mind. 
 
 "Towards eight in the evening," his chronicler relates, 
 " Charles asked if the consecrated tapers were ready. ' The 
 time is come,' said he, ' bring in the candle and the 
 crucifix.' These were cherished relics which he had long 
 kept in readiness for the supreme hour. The one was a taper 
 from Our Lady's shrine at Monserrat; the other a crucifix 
 which had been taken from the dead hand of his wife at 
 Toledo. He received them eagerly from the Archbishop, 
 Carronza, the Primate. ... On his bosom was placed the 
 crucifix of the Empress, and at the head of the bed hung a 
 beautiful picture of our blessed Lady." 
 
 So died the great Emperor ! 
 
 The lamented Prince Napoleon had— as a Roman Catholic 
 soldier commonly would — a charm upon him when he was 
 killed by the Zulus. It was a medal of the Madonna; and a 
 London newspaper stated that the Zulus would not detach it 
 from his neck, because they believe that " charms," if removed 
 from the last wearer, bring his luck with them. 
 
 It is recorded that the Duke of Monmouth, when taken 
 prisoner at Sedgemoor, was found to have similarly fortified 
 himself with several charms tied about his body ; while his 
 " table book " — purchased in this century at a book-stall in 
 Paris, and now in the British Museum — is filled with songs, 
 recipes, prayers, and charms. But all did not avail to save 
 him from defeat and the block. 
 
 A good story connected with our subject is told by a 
 correspondent of the Times in a letter dated Rome, May 26th, 
 1879. It relates to one of the then newly-made Cardinals, 
 Monsignor Pie, the well-known Bishop of Poitiers — the man 
 who denounced Napoleon III. as Pontius Pilate, was most active 
 in recruiting the Antibes Legion for the Papal army, and sup- 
 ported Pio Nono in his most ultramontane measures. Here it is. 
 
CHARMS IN THE CHURCH OF ROME. 93 
 
 " An amusing story is told of Pie's having ordered a grand 
 funeral mass for a Pontifical Zouave who was supposed to have 
 fallen at Castel Fidardo — of his having extolled in glowing 
 language the exalted virtues and heroism of the defunct, 
 whom all should strive to imitate ; while the man himself was 
 in the church, attending his own funeral ceremony. 
 
 " At the end of the service, however, the man was arrested as 
 a runaway debtor, to the scandal of all good Catholics. 
 
 " To escape from his creditors he had taken service in the 
 Papal army ; had fallen, shamming death, at the first encounter, 
 and to get clear off after the battle was over, had changed 
 clothes and passports with an officer of his own regiment, who 
 had been killed. He had been cunning enough to leave the 
 officer's scapular on the body, and to put the beads into the 
 pocket of, and the decorations upon the breast of, his own 
 jacket in which he had dressed the corpse. 
 
 " These things, found on the body of a private soldier, were 
 taken as undoubted proofs of his virtues and valour. Accord- 
 ing to the passport, the defunct was a native of Poitiers, Pie's 
 diocese, and when the news of so edifying a death reached 
 him, he thought the occasion too valuable not to be improved 
 — with the result as above. 
 
 "And the result was also improved by the Liberals, who 
 published an account of the affair in double columns. In the 
 one was the discourse delivered by Monsignor Pie ; in the 
 other the police report of the martyr's antecedents and short- 
 comings !" 
 
 We have before seen that several famous cities were in 
 ancient times supposed to be preserved by charms such as the 
 Palladium and the Ancile. Just in the same manner the 
 images and relics of saints are the security of cities now. Thus, 
 there is an annual procession on the fifth of September at 
 Pegli, near Genoa, in honour of St. Rosalia ; because in 
 A.D. 1667 she protected the place from a prevailing pestilence. 
 
94 ROME: PAGAN AND PAPAL. 
 
 In a church near Nice a lady once drew my attention to 
 an ugly little image of the Virgin, which she told me had saved 
 the town from cholera.. She quite believed it, poor thing, and 
 I well remember the energy of her statement. I had previously 
 asked her if the tawdry little goddess was miraculous : " Molto 
 niiraculoso, Signore," was her reply. 
 
 We have already seen that the Bulla — there is a fine speci- 
 men in gold in the Vatican Etruscan Museum — contained the 
 charm which blessed the children of Heathen Rome ; a parallel 
 may be found in these days. 
 
 " V/hat, madam," said I to a French lady, "permit me to 
 ask, is that object hung round the neck of your infant ? " 
 
 " That, sir," she replied, " is a medal blessed by the priest, 
 to keep the child from harm." 
 
 So the Heathen usage is continued in the Christian custom. 
 
 The coral charm, before alluded to, acts precisely the same 
 part now as it did in old Rome, " affording health and i)ro- 
 tection to children," So wrote Pliny, and so his people still 
 believe, and even now protect their children with coral against 
 evil spirits. 
 
 Did you, reader, ever observe how the old painters often 
 deck even the Holy Child Jesus with this Heathen talisman ? 
 We give a specimen above, after a picture by Pinturicchio, in 
 
CHARMS IN THE CHURCH OF ROME. 95 
 
 the National Gallery. The four detached ornaments belong 
 to the Child Jesus in other pictures — by Lippi, Crivelli, and 
 others — also in the National Gallery. See pp. 37, 88, 151, 
 270, and 330, of the authorised catalogue, 1876. 
 
 Seven examples may, I think, be found in the gallery. 
 
 Sometimes the charm is attached to a coral necklace, and 
 bracelets of the same material are occasionally added. 
 
 Nor is this amulet represented only on canvas. Among the 
 bronzes in the South Kensington Museum it may be seen in 
 bronze on the necks of a pair of children — seventeenth century 
 — a Child Jesus and a Cupid. What a union ! 
 
 We have already remarked that a superstitious Pagan blessed 
 himself on leaving home, by some form of incantation thrice 
 repeated. The worshipper of Papal times blesses himself by 
 signing the cross three times. 
 
 The use of Lustral, or Holy Water, by the ancients has 
 also been noticed. They applied it to the purification of 
 houses, as well as persons, and even in this they are still 
 followed. " The modern Italians," says Blunt, " use holy 
 water as a charm. All their rooms are annually sprinkled with 
 \X.r— Vestiges, 1^. 172. The writer has himself witnessed this 
 ceremony in Florence at Easter. 
 
 Modern holy water is mixed with salt ; how very ancient 
 and Pagan this custom is, the following rendering from Theo- 
 critus (xxiv. 95-7) will show: 
 
 " With sulphur let the house be purified ; 
 Then, from a full urn, sprinkle on the floor 
 Pure water, mixed with salt, from side to side ; 
 For so the holy custom doth provide." 
 
 I conclude the chapter with a specimen of the unlimited 
 popular belief in this charm. It is quoted from a letter which 
 appeared in a Roman Catholic journal, from one who is en- 
 trusted, apparently, with the care of Irish Emigrants. 
 
 " A storm was raging, when an old woman sent for me. I 
 
96 
 
 ROME: PAGAN AND PAPAL. 
 
 went to her. She said she had a bottle of holy water, and 
 that if I sprinkled the ship with it, it might still the storm. 
 I complied with her request ; after which she desired me to 
 throw the bottle into the sea, so that it might calm the rage of 
 the angry waters." 
 
 Christ using His cross as a charm to break open the gates of Hell, in order that 
 He might bring forth the Old Testament saints, with Adam and Eve at their 
 head. From a French miniature of the thirteenth century. 
 
XVI. 
 
 USE OF CHARMS IN THE CHURCH OF ROME. 
 
 Part III. 
 
 WE have stated that, in Pagan China, the remains of a 
 sacrifice to Confucius are carried away and given to 
 children as a talisman, "to make them become great men." 
 A few instances will now be cited of the uses to which the 
 consecrated wafer filched from "the Sacrifice of the Mass " is 
 applied in Christendom, by way of a charm. 
 
 The following are from Picart. " Sometimes," he says, " it 
 is used as a love-charm, or philtre, both for honourable 
 purposes, and by priests in dishonest love. Here is an ex- 
 ample of the former. 
 
 "'A woman of Ancona,' says the Monk Bassius, Svith an 
 unfaithful husband, reserved part of the wafer in her mouth, 
 took it home, and then made it into a philtre to win back his 
 love.' " 
 
 Very much like the passage of Virgil quoted in a former 
 chapter — 
 
 " Back to liis home from the city, my charms, draw tlie wandering 
 Daphnis." 
 
 Again ; we find, also from Bassius, that the wafer has been 
 used as a bee-charm. The bees belonging to a certain woman 
 were barren ; so one day she did not swallow the Host at the 
 Communion, and, "after taking it out of her mouth, placed it 
 in one of her hives." 
 
 It will also serve as a gardt n-charm. A young girl of the 
 
 7 
 
98 ROME: PAGAN AND PAPAL. 
 
 Isle of St. Nicholas had a garden which was eaten up by 
 caterpillars. So she, like the others, hides the wafer in her 
 mouth, and then, "breaking it into morsels, sows it broadcast 
 among the vegetables." 
 
 Again ; " a woman of virtue and of piety," whose son 
 Accacius was born blind, cured him by a poultice made of 
 this charmed bread. 
 
 But the wafer can develop still more extraordinary powers. 
 It was the custom, Deacon Amaliri, of Metz, informs us, to 
 bury the dead with a wafer laid on the stomach ; and this, he 
 adds, was done in the case of St. Cuthbert. Now, there was 
 a certain man so wicked that when, after his decease, attempts 
 were made to bury him, his dead body was twice cast out by 
 the earth. His relations were distressed and perplexed, and 
 appealed for advice to no less a person than St. Benedict. 
 The saint directed them to use the charm just described, and 
 gave them a wafer for the purpose with his own hand — de la 
 prop7-e ??iain. This treatment proved successful, and the corpse 
 was comfortably settled in its grave. — Picart, xi. 49-65. 
 
 Picart considers that the custom of burying with a wafer is 
 a relic of Paganism, and that the wafer on the stomach was 
 substituted for the coin which used to be put into the mouth 
 of the corpse for the purpose of paying Charon's fee. 
 
 In the Twenty-eighth Article of the Church of England it 
 is affirmed " that Transubstantiation hath given occasion to 
 many superstitions." If any of us have not hitherto realized 
 the force of this, we can hardly fail to do so after considering 
 the quotations just given. 
 
 To one believing in Transubstantiation, the desire to have 
 the Host buried with him is surely most natural and proper. 
 It certainly would be my wish had I faith in the doctrine ; for 
 how comforting the idea of having God with one's flesh in the 
 grave ! 
 
 Yes, and that, too, of having Him certainly with us in life. 
 
CHARMS IN THE CHURCH OF ROME. 99 
 
 The larger Wafer used in the Mass. 
 
 The small Wafer given in the Communion to the people. 
 
lOO ROME: PAGAN AND PAPAL. 
 
 Were I a believer of the type of the woman of Ancona, or the 
 girl of St. Nicholas' Isle, I fear I should long ago have 
 yielded to sore temptation, just as they did, to effect such a 
 purpose ; and would wear the filched wafer ever round my neck. 
 I entirely sympathize, not with their theft, but with the cravings 
 of their humanity. 
 
 Of the caterpillars we will not say much : the girl, though 
 sincere, must have been idle ; or why did she not pick them 
 off with her fingers ? But the wife of Ancona — conceive ! To 
 be able by means so simple to restore the love of her 
 " wandering Daphnis " ! 
 
 The quantity of bread given to the recipient in the Sacrament 
 has also been a cause of superstition : for the Church of Rome 
 uses a large and a small wafer, figures of which may be seen 
 on the previous page. 
 
 " Pride," says Picart, " leads some laics to desire to com- 
 municate with the large wafer — grande Hostie — in order to 
 distinguish themselves from those — pour se distinguer des autres 
 — who have only the small one." And he describes the 
 manner in which the Sieur of Schlosperg, in the Tyrol, was 
 punished by God for this sin, the pavement of the church 
 yawning at his feet to swallow him up. St. Theresa, too, he 
 says, avowed that she was glad to receive a great wafer ; and 
 so others, piously but ignorantly, " in order to obtain more 
 abundant grace — en vue de recevoir des graces plus abondantes." 
 
 Well, poor things, who blames them ? I am sure I do not : 
 it would have been the same with me but for the grace of God 
 through the Reformation. We are all alike enwrapt in nature's 
 night until the Word of God shines into our dark heart. 
 
 Another powerful amulet, among Heathens and Christians 
 alike, is the Cross. 
 
 Here is what T/ie Poor Man's Catec/iisin teaches in regard to 
 it. " This sacred sign is a means of preserving us from evil 
 spirits, which disappear at its siglit." How imi)udent a stat-e- 
 
CHARMS IN THE CHURCH OF ROME. lOI 
 
 ment, when we remember some of the scenes in which the 
 cross or crucifix has been prominent ! 
 
 An engraving iUustrating this charm, and intended for the 
 instruction of young people, is sold in Paris. It depicts a 
 child calling his good angel to succour him against a serpent 
 which crawls towards him. In the child's hand is a cross, and 
 the angel says, " Carry that sign before thee in confidence, and 
 the serpent will be powerless at thy feet." How well this 
 " Catholic " print agrees with another verse of the passage 
 quoted above from Virgil's Eclogue : — 
 
 " Cnislied by the force of charms the cold snake lies dead in the meadow." 
 
 The following from Picart (i. 102) is curious. 
 
 In Toulouse there is a considerable portion of the cross, 
 which is exhibited twice in the year. At those times it is 
 steeped in water, and the water is afterwards given to the sick, 
 who find it a great comfort — qui s'en trouvent extremement 
 sonlagcs. 
 
 Among some of the Heathen inhabitants of America the 
 cross is, according to the testimony of the Spanish mis- 
 sionaries, used as an amulet, and called "the wood of health" 
 (^Edinburgh Ranew, Jan. 1870). It appears, therefore, to be 
 good for health by way of an infusion in France, and as 
 a solid in America ! 
 
 But of the universal prevalence of the cross as a Pagan 
 charm we say no rnore here, because the subject has been 
 already treated in an illustrated work by the present writer, 
 entitled The Cross: Heathen and Christian, and published by 
 Messrs. Seeley. 
 
 The scapular and the rosary are also powerful charms. Of 
 the efficacy of the latter the following story — from Ford's 
 Handbook for Spain, vol. ii., p. 192 — is an example. 
 
 " A robber, shot by a traveller, was buried. His comrades 
 passing by, sometime afterwards, heard his voice. They opened 
 
102 ROME: PAGAN A AD FAPAL. 
 
 the grave, and found him alive and unhurt ; for when he was 
 killed he had a rosary round his neck, and consequently, St. 
 Dominic — its inventor — was enabled to intercede with the 
 Virgin on his behalf." 
 
 A saving efficacy is supposed to reside in a Monk's dress, 
 and I am told that it is still usual in Spain for sick persons to 
 have one put on in order that they may die in it. " A monk," 
 says Picart (vol. i., p. i8i), "imagines that he exhales from 
 his body corpuscles, or particles, of piety, and that if a dying 
 man be covered with his holy garb, these particles will go 
 straight to the heart of the latter. Thus, as regards dignity, 
 the Monk can always put his dress on a par ivitli Baptism and 
 7i.<ith the Passion of Christ T 
 
 From what follows — extracted from the Daily Ncios, March 
 25th, 1879 — it will be seen that a similar virtue is supposed to 
 proceed from the bodies of Heathen Monks even in the 
 present day. 
 
 " The Phongees, priest-monks in Burmah, have great in- 
 fluence. There are whole districts in Mandalay devoted to 
 Phongee monasteries. A Phongee has no bother about any- 
 thing at all. He is forbidden to have any money, nor does he 
 want it : he wears a bright yellow garment. People bring him 
 his food — rice from this admirer, or from that. His life is 
 celibate: he is not supposed to let his eyes rest upon a woman, 
 but has a quiet knack of giving a sly glance out of the corners 
 of them. He never goes hungry, and when he dies, has a 
 funeral the pageant of which may last for days. When dead, 
 he is plunged into a cask of honey ; and, after such a time as 
 may be sufficient to allow the virtues of him — 'corpuscles of 
 piety' — to pass into the honey, he is fished out, and i)ious 
 people greedily consume the honey." 
 
 So closely is the monachism of Heathendom allied to that 
 of Churchdom; so clearly do they exhibit their common origin 
 in the Religion of Nature. 
 
 i 
 
CHAKiMS IN THE CHURCH OF ROME. 103 
 
 Homer tells us of the wonder-working cestus, or girdle, ot 
 
 Venus — 
 
 " The broidered cestus wrought with every charm 
 To win the heart." 
 
 Like it is the girdle of the Virgin of Tortosa in Spain. " It 
 was brought from Heaven by herself in a.d. 117H, and became 
 the Palladium of the city. Like the Bambino Jesu of the 
 Ara-Coeli at Rome, it is also particularly invoked by women 
 in child-birth." — Ford's Handbook for Spain, vol. ii., p. 160. 
 
 Lucky and unlucky days, as in the already quoted case of 
 Haman, were much regarded by the Heathen. In the Assyrian 
 monuments great stress is laid on them ; and reference to 
 them may be found also in the Classical authors. " Days," 
 says Aulus Gellius (v. 9), " of ill-repute for their bad omen, 
 and forbidden, are termed superstitious, on which one must 
 neither perform religious rites nor begin any new undertaking." 
 Christianity puts all days except the Lord's day on a level : 
 but superstition ever resists this, and exalts one day above 
 another to the bane of the Church of Christ. " How turn ye 
 again to the weak and beggarly elements, whereunto ye desire 
 again to be in bondage? Ye observe days " (Gal. iv. 9, 10). 
 
 Numerous are the Saints' days of Rome ; and it is sad to 
 know that our bishops and clergy are pressing the observance 
 of them upon us, as well as that of the forty days of Lent. 
 Neither of these, so far as I can understand, suit that " liberty 
 wherewith Christ hath made us free." What is Lent but a 
 " yoke of bondage ? " Its observance may be traced among 
 Heathens ancient and modern : long fasts and oft-repeated 
 prayers are ever characteristic of the Religion of Nature. 
 
XVII. 
 
 THE CONSECRATION OF HOLY FIRE AND IIOIY WATER. 
 
 WHENCE comes the holy fire which one sees ever 
 burning in Roman Cathohc churches ? 
 
 Having this morning — "Holy Saturday," April 12th, 1879 
 — witnessed its generation by the priests, just outside the gate 
 of the large church at Mentone, I am able to tell. 
 
 Saturday in " holy week " is a great day for Church cere- 
 monies, especially for those which are connected with " holy 
 fire" and "holy water." 
 
 The week has been, of course, ceremonious and sombre. 
 T.ast Sunday the blessing of palms and branches took place : 
 the ceremony was performed in the church with "holy water" 
 manufactured a year ago. As I was going to the Protestant 
 place of worship on that day, I met with a number of people 
 carrying home consecrated palms, in order to place them in 
 their houses, and use them as charms. Of two persons who 
 bore them, I asked their use. " Eor charms," was the reply — 
 Contre les main'ais esprits, et pour chasser le Diab/e." These 
 palms, like the holy fire and water, are renewed at the same 
 time every year. The old ones are burned : and with the 
 ashes, my informant tells me, he made the sign of the cross on 
 his forehead on Ash Wednesday. So at Rome, on the same 
 occasion, and with similar material, I have seen the Pope in 
 grand state charming the Cardinals as they knelt before him. 
 
 There are many other sights in this week, such as the table 
 set out for the Supper, the washing of the pilgrims' feet, and 
 the procession, on the night of Good Friday, of the dead 
 
CONSECRATION OF HOLY FIRE AND WATER. 1 05 
 
 Christ. This is a figure as large as life, and shocking to look 
 upon. It is placed upon a bier, and, accompanied with lights 
 and music and chanting, it is carried through the town upon 
 men's shoulders from church to church. For a while it is 
 deposited in a public place on its illuminated catafalque, and 
 then it is borne back in procession to its pretended tomb in 
 the church. Such is the manner in which I have seen the 
 ceremony performed. 
 
 Subjoined is a list of the usual doings in Roman Catholic 
 countries during Passion week ; it is extracted from the 
 Monaco journal, April, 1879. 
 
 Offices De La Sef)iai?ie-Samfe A La Cathedrale. 
 
 6. Avril. Dimatiche des Ranieaiix. 
 
 Benediction des palmes faite par Mgr. I'Eveque. Procession. 
 Grand' Masse, a laquelle Sa Grandeur assistera en cappa. 
 Chant de la Passion. 
 
 L'apres-midi. — -Vepres, Sermon, Salut. 
 
 Mercredi Saint. 
 Trois heures et demie. — Office des Tenebres. 
 jEUDi Saint. 
 
 Sept heures du Matin. — Communion generate, donnee par Sa 
 Grandeur. 
 
 Matin. — Grand'Messe Pontificale. Benediction des Saintes 
 Huiles. Procession au Reposoir. Lavement des pieds par Mgr. 
 I'Eveque. 
 
 L'apres-midi. — Office des Tenebres. 
 
 Du soir. — Procession de la Confrerie des Penitents. Sermon 
 a la Cathedrale. 
 
 Vendredi Saint. 
 
 Matin. —Chant de la Passion. Adoration de la Croix. Pro- 
 cession du Reposoir. Messe des Presanctifies. 
 
 Apres-midi. — Les trois heures d'agonie avec chants. Sermons 
 suivis de I'Office des Tenebres. 
 
 Huit heures du soir. — Procession du Christ mort de I'eglise des 
 Penitents a la Cathedrale. Sermon. Chant du " Stabat Mater." 
 
I06 ROME: PAGAN AND PAPAL. 
 
 Samedi Saint. 
 Huit hcures et demie du Matin. — Benediction du Feu. Chant 
 des Propheties. Benediction des Fonts. Grand'Messe Pon- 
 tificale. 
 
 We said that the week has been sombre : but its oppressive- 
 ness will presently be relieved by an Easter outburst of enjoy- 
 ment and dissipation — a natural reaction after the enforced, 
 and therefore unscriptural, observance of Lent. Since Thurs- 
 day even the bells, always so offensively noisy in advertizing 
 the Clergy and their doings, have been silent. In some places 
 — as, for instance, in Malta — the people are called together 
 during these days by the clapping of boards, a process which 
 I have also witnessed at the Armenian monastery in Jerusalem. 
 But, at any rate, the silence is frequently broken by the rattling 
 of Judas' bones — a statement which may fairly require some 
 explanation. 
 
 Well, the said bones are pieces of wood, used as a sort of 
 Castanet, which the boys rattle in the streets more or less 
 throughout Lent. This is one way in which the people show 
 their piety, by rattling the supposed bones of the traitor : 
 while, at the end of Lent, they belabour his image with clubs, 
 and afterwards burn it. In the same manner one may some- 
 times see the effigy of Judas burned amid execrations, at this 
 time of the year, on board the Portuguese ships in the London 
 Docks. Truly there are strange ways of expressing piety ! 
 
 But we will now watch the ceremony of the blessing of the 
 fire. Just outside the door of the church, on the right side 
 and on the upper step, is a little heap of shavings and 
 fircones ; and many children in picturesque dresses are stand- 
 ing near to see the sight. Immediately within the door a 
 lectern has been placed, and the service-book is laid upon it ; 
 so that everything is now ready for the ceremony. 
 
 Soon after nine o'clock, a company of priests, handsomely 
 dressed, with acolytes, etc., march in procession from within to 
 
CONSECRATION OF HOLY FIRE AND WATER. 10/ 
 
 the door. They bring with them a censer, a vessel of holy 
 water with a sprinkler, and a plate upon which are laid some 
 small candles, a piece of incense, an apparatus for striking a 
 light, and four lemon-coloured and lemon-like balls. There is 
 some trouble in producing the light, since the Papacy will 
 have nothing to do with the " lucifers " of the nineteenth 
 century, and rigidly adheres to the old flint-and-steel as 
 appointed by her rubric. 
 
 So there is a long pause, while the priest is contending with 
 his difficulties. At length, however, the light is obtained in 
 the orthodox way, the shavings and fircones are kindled, and 
 from them the incense in the censer, and also the candles. 
 Now follows a brief ofifice in the porch, and the candles, objects 
 in the plate, etc., together with the fire itself, are all sprinkled 
 with holy water — that is, with the old holy water consecrated 
 a twelvemonth ago. Now a procession is formed, and as it 
 slowly advances up the church, those who compose it chant, 
 and, at stated intervals, fall on their knees, until in this manner 
 they reach the altar, where some candles, v/hich have been 
 previously extinguished, are relighted with the newly-obtained 
 fire. 
 
 Such was the ceremony, and very Heathen and wizard it 
 seemed. Picart gives an engraving of it, but no explanation. 
 Foye's Romish Rites furnishes the following additional particu- 
 lars, among others. — That the priest blesses the new fire in 
 front of the church, then blesses five grains of incense to be put 
 into the wax taper, and sprinkles them with holy water ; and 
 also that three candles, previously blessed, and fixed on a 
 triangle elevated upon a cane, are lighted at intervals. 
 
 Later, in the same morning, the water ceremony is performed ; 
 but this takes place within the church. I extract from Foye 
 the following particulars in regard to it. 
 
 It appears that there are three kinds of holy water, two of 
 which are used for the consecration of churches. 
 
I08 ROME: PAGAN AND PAPAL. 
 
 Of these two, the first is considered to be inferior, since 
 nothing but salt is used in its preparation — " salt exorcised for 
 the salvation of those that believe." It serves for sprinkling 
 the building. 
 
 The other is made up by a mixture of salt, ashes, and wine 
 — all blessed, of course. This appears to be the holier of the 
 two, and is used for the consecration of the altar. 
 
 The third cldss of holy water, that which is referred to above 
 as being consecrated on " Holy Saturday," is used for baptisms 
 during the following year ; and also, as I gather, for sprinkling 
 generally. 
 
 In its preparation — amid many exorcisms of devils and 
 evil spirits, and forms of prayer — the following ceremonies 
 are observed. 
 
 The priest divides the water in the font, with his hand, in 
 the shape of a cross. 
 
 In exorcising the water, he touches it with his hand. 
 
 In blessing it, he thrice makes over it the sign of the cross. 
 
 In dividing it, he pours it towards the four quarters of 
 heaven. 
 
 He breathes thrice into it in the form of a cross. 
 
 He lets down the great Paschal candle a little into it, and 
 says, " The might of the Holy Ghost descend into this 
 fountain-plenitude" — /;/ hanc pleiiitiidincin fontis. 
 
 Then he takes the candle from the water, and again merges 
 it more deeply, saying the same words as before, but in a 
 higher tone. 
 
 The third time he plunges it to the bottom, again repeating 
 the formula with a still louder voice. 
 
 Then blowing — sufflans — thrice into the water in the form of 
 the Greek letter Psi, he says, " Impregnate with regenerating 
 efficacy the whole substance of this water ;" and so takes the 
 candle out of the font. 
 
 Besides these doings, various oils are poured into the 
 
CONSECRATION OF HOLY FIRE AND WATER. 109 
 
 water, and mixed with the hand ; and, still more strange, spittle 
 is mingled with it, as I have once seen with my own eyes in 
 the grand Baptistry at St. John Lateran in Rome ! 
 
 " The miglit of the Holy Ghost descend into this fountain- 
 plenitude, and impregnate tvith regenerating efficacy the whole 
 substance of this water. 
 
 Such is the spell. Exorcisms first chase all evil spirits from 
 the water, then incantations and charms^dividings, oils, cross- 
 ings, breathings, candle-plungings, and other things — cause the 
 might of the Holy Ghost to descend and impregnate the water 
 with regenerating efficacy. It is no longer ordinary water, 
 such as that wherein the eunuch or Cornelius and his friends 
 were baptized ; but, by the power of charms, it has become an 
 ecclesiastical compound, and those to whom it is administered 
 are made new creatures and regenerate, not — so far as I 
 understand — because they are brought by faith to Christ, but 
 through the mere application of the fluid impregnated with 
 virtue by an ecclesiastical process. And the only man who 
 can make and apply this " Elixir of Life " — of eternal life ! — is 
 the priest. 
 
 To the Law and to the Testimony, and how cruel a decep- 
 tion is this system of magic detected to be. It is not the 
 water of Baptism which regenerates, but the Word of God 
 implanted in us by His Spirit. Hear the evidence : — 
 
 " Of His own will begat He us with the Word of truth "' 
 (James i. 18). 
 
 " Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorrup- 
 tible, by the Word of God which liveth and abideth for ever " 
 (i Peter i. 23). 
 
 " That He might sanctify and cleanse it — the Church — 
 with the washing of water by the Word " {Eph. v. 26). 
 
XVIII. 
 
 THE FEAST OF THE PURIFICATION, OR CANDLEMAS. 
 
 THE Feast of the Purification, or Candlemas, was, as 
 Picart tells us, substituted for the Heathen festival 
 called Ambarvalia ; in which processions were made through 
 the fields, and a sacrifice was offered for purification. At the 
 same time it also took the place of the nocturnal perambula- 
 tions with lighted torches, which commemorated the wanderings 
 of Ceres, when she traversed the country in search of her 
 daughter Proserpine, whom Pluto had carried off. 
 
 In the early ages of the Church, it could not but be noticed 
 that these Roman feasts were the causes of much debauchery, 
 and consequently Christian PontiiTs were anxious to do away 
 with them. It was, however, thought necessary to give the 
 people some equivalent ; and, with this view, the second day 
 of February was devoted to the Feast of the Purification. It 
 was called Candlemas, and the torches and wax tapers, formerly 
 carried about in honour of Ceres, were now connected with 
 the Holy Virgin ; while the people were permitted to indulge 
 in the diversions and pleasures which such occasions never 
 failed to inspire. See Picart., vol. i., p. 163. 
 
 Thus Ceres went out, and Mary came in ; torches disap- 
 peared, and candles succeeded. 
 
 In Sicily, a similar transformation was effected, but with the 
 difference that there Agatha, the patron saint of Catania, and 
 not Mary, was substituted for the Heathen goddess Ceres. 
 
 The following extract will show that Picart is not alone 
 in his opinion respecting the design oi these adaptations, 
 
CANDLEMAS. 1 1 i 
 
 which were as common as they were ruinous to the purity of 
 Christianity. 
 
 " Theophylact, Patriarch of Constantinople, with a design of 
 weaning men from Heathen ceremonies, particularly those of 
 Bacchus, substituted Christian festivals partaking of a similar 
 spirit of licentiousness, which led to a still further adoption 
 of rites more or less imitated from the Pagans." — Chambers' 
 Book of Days, Jan. 14. 
 
 Judaism, Gnosticism, and Heathenism — these from the first 
 were the tares sown with the wheat. 
 
 During his stay in Sicily, Professor Blunt witnessed the 
 festival of St. Agatha, and was much struck with its corre- 
 spondence to that of Ceres. He mentions, among other things, 
 the fact that the day of observance, February 2nd, is the 
 same ; and also that, according to the testimony of Ovid, the 
 fete of Ceres commenced with a horse-race, at which the 
 Town Council were present, which is also the custom at St. 
 Agatha's festival. 
 
 Candles and torches of an enormous size used to be dedi- 
 cated to the " Bona Dea." Similar offerings are now presented 
 to the saint, and in a similar manner. 
 
 The goddess was borne to her temple upon a splendid 
 throne, and in great state ; the saint is conveyed to her 
 cathedral with equal pomp, and on a silver throne. 
 
 Ovid tells us that at the Eleusinia, or festival of Ceres, all 
 were draped in white, and at the feast of St. Agatha, the 
 favourite colour is also white. 
 
 To the programme of each of the festivals there is appended 
 a grand procession, during the progress of which the ancient 
 cry to the goddess was, " Hail, Ceres ! " while " Viva, Sta. 
 Agatha ! " is the modern greeting addressed to the saint. 
 And it is certainly remarkable that the day of the modern 
 procession coincides with that of the ancient, both of them 
 being the fourth day of the festival. 
 
112 ROME: PAGAN AND PAPAL. 
 
 Lastly, in the matter of relics the goddess resembled the 
 saint ; for the relics of the former were deposited in a holy 
 basket, which was conveyed in a consecrated cart ; while those 
 of the latter are placed in a sacred chest, and carried in a 
 sacred car. Goddess and saint, basket and chest, cart and 
 car — how exact the parallel between ancient and modern 
 Heathenism ! 
 
 Relics have ever been objects of reverence in Heathen 
 worship. According to Varro, the original sow which verified 
 an augury to yEneas was preserved by the priests at Lavinium 
 — a somewhat strange fancy ! To the bones of Theseus, which 
 were laid up at Athens, we have already referred. Men have 
 always had a passion for such things : what has been, is ; and 
 what is, will be. 
 
 The relics of St. Agatha, as Blunt tells us, are her veil — by 
 means of which the eruptions of Mount Etna have been more 
 than once stayed, if you are disposed to believe it — her foot, 
 and her breast. According to the legend, both her breasts were 
 cut off; where the other is I do not know, but how much 
 better if such things were buried out of sight. These relics 
 are generally to be seen in her pictures, so that one can easily 
 recognize her. I shall never forget the look of contempt which 
 a painter, who was copying something in a gallery at Florence, 
 gave me when I pointed to St. Agatha, and said, " Who, pray 
 sir, is that saint ? " Much more polite was the treatment I 
 received at Naples, from an artist of whom I inquired the 
 name of the painter of the Virgin, in copying which he was 
 busily engaged. He not only told me the name, but added 
 the undesired information, " And the original, sir, was his 
 mistress." 
 
 While staying at Orvieto, in South Italy, in the May of 1879, 
 I was much struck with the very pleasing effect of a procession 
 which had assembled to perform some such ceremony as 
 that of the ancient Ambarvalia. Led by the clergy of the 
 
CANDLEMAS. II3 
 
 cathedral, beneath the spacious roof of which it had been 
 marshalled, and composed of various guilds of the town in 
 their many-coloured costumes, its distant appearance was 
 charming. First traversing the streets of the town, it then 
 emerged into the country, passing through vineyards, corn- 
 fields, pastures, and woodlands, with streaming banners long 
 drawn out. As it wound round the rocks of that magnificent 
 scenery, and went in and out among the olive-trees, the sight 
 was certainly dehghtful. But what was the use of it? 
 Heathenism and processions have, indeed, always kept com- 
 pany ; but where in the New Testament do we read of such 
 a thing in association with Christianity ? 
 
 Among the many remarkable pictures at the Luxembourg, 
 there is one which well illustrates our subject. It depicts an 
 imitation of the Heathen ceremony of Ambarvalia. The priest, 
 with his attendants, is seen carrying the Host, as he winds his 
 way through the cornfields in spring, and blesses them with 
 holy water and other mystic rites. It is difficult to realize that 
 the subject is " Christian," and not Heathen. 
 
XIX. 
 
 THE IMAGES OF THE GODS. 
 
 MANY are the objects of worship to which the heart of 
 man has turned aside from God. Among tliese are 
 the heavenly bodies (Job xxxi. 26-28), the brute creation 
 (Rom. i. 23), fire, the generative principle, the productive 
 principle, the frame of nature, and fetish. But there is also 
 another and very prevalent kind of idolatry ; that is, the 
 worship of dead men — ancestors, heroes and heroines, gods 
 and goddesses, and saints male and female. 
 
 •This is hero-worship ; and is called Demonolatry, or the 
 worship of the spirits of dead men who, by ecclesiastical 
 authority, whether Christian or Heathen, have been canonized, 
 and are thus supposed to have become qualified recipients of 
 public worship. 
 
 But of these — since they are invisible, and the nature of 
 man desires something which can be laid hold of by the senses 
 — tangible representations have been made in the form of 
 images and pictures. 
 
 " Images," says the Roman Catholic writer in ricart, " are 
 nearly as ancient as worship itself; and no wonder, since their 
 origin is due to the weakness of humanity. Man could not 
 long fix his attention on purely spiritual objects, and, therefore, 
 insensibly turned to the material, and tried, so to sjjcak, to 
 render the object of worship palpable. 
 
 " It is true that the use of these signs becomes dangerous. 
 Formerly God was obliged to forbid it to the Jews : the 
 Christians, however " — mark the writer's irony — " thought 
 
THE IMAGES OF THE GODS. II5 
 
 that they might without risk imitate their predecessors, the 
 Heathen. 
 
 " Serenus, Bishop of Marseilles, in order to preserve the new 
 converts from the guilt of idolatry, destroyed the images in his 
 diocese. But St. Gregory, the Pope (d. 604), ordered them to 
 be restored, considering that pastoral instruction would correct 
 the grossest of popular errors." — Picart, vol. i., chap. 3. 
 
 Fallacious and ruinous idea, too clearly manifested by 
 the prevalence and endurance of idolatry in Christendom ! 
 I suppose Gregory thought as did a traveller of the last 
 century, who, after remarking upon the difficulty of teaching an 
 illiterate peasant to comprehend an immaterial and invisible 
 God, adds, "But set up before him the figure of a fine 
 woman, with a beautiful child in her arms — the most interesting 
 object in nature — and tell him she can procure him everything 
 he wants ; he knows perfectly well what he is about, feels 
 himself animated by the object, and prays to her with all his 
 might." — Bridone's Tour, vol. i., p. 163. 
 
 " The ancient Heathen also, long before the introduction 
 of Christianity, attributed the power of working miracles to the 
 images of their gods and heroes. Livy, that ingenious Pagan 
 fabulist, adorned his pages with an infinity of piiracles and 
 prodigies, among which are several relating to images. And 
 Cicero — not one of the credulous — often mentions religious 
 marvels; as, for instance, the sweating of statues. He assures 
 us that the statue of Apollo at Cumae perspired, as also that 
 of Victory at Capua." — Picart. 
 
 And such things are still believed, as we may easily discover 
 from well-known instances of sweating saints and winking 
 Virgins. Here is an example from the Report of the Syrian 
 Schools at Bcyrout, 1876. "The priests publicly announced 
 that, on a certain day, the image of the Virgin would perspire ; 
 and that all must come and dip their fingers in the perspiration, 
 and make the sign of the cross." 
 
Il6 ROME: PAGAN AND PAPAL. 
 
 In May, 1876, I was at Clermont Ferard, the capital of 
 Auvergne, in France, and upon entering a shop close to the 
 famous Sanctuary of Notre Dame du Port, found myself 
 confronting a grisette who was selling prints and images of this 
 same Lady of the Port. 
 
 *' But tell me, Ma'm'selle, tell me, pray," said I, " is the 
 image in the church yonder really miraculous ? " 
 
 " Certainly it is, Monsieur. It has performed many — 
 many miracles." 
 
 She, too, believed the lie, poor thing. So I went to see the 
 idol ; and lo ! there it was, a mean diminutive little thing, but 
 painted of course by St. Luke, as most of these images were 
 if you will only be good enough to believe what you are told. 
 It was placed above the altar, in a crypt brilliantly lighted with 
 candles, adorned with many votive offerings, and at the time 
 occupied by a crowd of worshippers ; for the Fete of the image 
 was then going on. The sight was touching ; for all seemed, 
 and many no doubt were, much in earnest. 
 
 One incident specially affected me. A young servant girl, 
 brimming over, no doubt, with love of the image, offered a 
 rosary, and Soeur Marie, an habituee of the church, mounting 
 some steps and kneeling upon the altar, hung the little gift 
 round the idol's neck. 
 
 Dear child ! no doubt she gave the tiny offering with all her 
 heart : but, oh ! that that heart had been drawn to Christ 
 instead of to the senseless image ! Then her adoring love 
 would have been worship, and not idolatry. 
 
 In the Museum of the Capitol at Rome, there is another 
 girl, portrayed in marble — not French, but Roman ; not 
 modern, but ancient ; not a worshipper of the image of Mary, 
 but of the image of Hygeia, the goddess of health, to whom, 
 as you see in the cut on the opposite page, she is presenting 
 the usual offering of cakes. 
 
 She lives now but in marble. Yet once she, too, was warm 
 
 % 
 
THE IMAGES OF THE GODS. 
 
 117 
 
 with life, and her heart beat with emotions Hke that of the 
 French girl. How similar their circumstances ! Each of them 
 had a patroness, revered her image, would have kissed it with 
 
 lively feeling, and sought to gain favours from it. Both of 
 them offered gifts, the most acceptable they could procure; 
 the one the rosary, the other the cakes. The Roman girl did 
 
Il8 ROME: PAGAN AND PAPAL. 
 
 SO for the restoration of her health ; the French maiden for 
 the success, it may be, of a love-affair, or, perhaps, for pros- 
 perity in some little " commerce " which she was meditating. 
 
 Here then are two girls equally, we will say, well-intentioned, 
 pious, and devout, yet the one is called a Christian, and the 
 other a Heathen. Nay ; it is not so. In the particular acts 
 of worship of which we have been speaking both girls were 
 alike Heathen : for both performed a Heathen rite, and both 
 bowed down to a graven image. Such things are idolatry ; 
 and it matters little whether they be done in the temple of the 
 goddess Mary at Clermont, or before the image of the goddess 
 Hygeia in the temple of ^sculapius at Rome. 
 
 A great contrast to the pretty Heathen votary and her 
 goddess is a wooden idol, about six inches high, and painted 
 in blue, red, and yellow, which people venerate at Le Puy, the 
 capital of the volcanic region of Auvergne in the centre of 
 France. It is a black Virgin, and is represented on page 119. 
 
 I visited Auvergne, in the August of 1 861, to examine the 
 remarkable church-architecture of the district, and then 
 obtained a portrait of this beauty. How hot it was that 
 summer ! — the thermometer in the carriage at 93° — it should 
 have been a good vintage. 
 
 But, to return to the Black Virgin, I am thoroughly puzzled 
 in regard to the attractiveness of ugliness ; for in England, 
 alas ! we have an artistic school devoted to it. How often do 
 we see children enamoured of their very ugliest doll ; and 
 certainly in the churches the most hideous images, and this 
 Black Virgin of Le Puy among them, are generally the most 
 popular. There is an instance of this at Dijon, and I have 
 a vivid remembrance of a little ugly deformity in Rome, 
 brought — so they say— from Jerusalem. It may be found 
 in the church just outside the city gate, below the Vatican 
 palace; and the last time I was there, a lovely basket of 
 camellias, the offering of Pio Nono, lay before the image. 
 
THE IMAGES OF THE GODS. 
 
 119 
 
 Evidently beauty is no necessity to an object of adoration ; 
 for the black deformities abound in France and Italy. And 
 could there be anything more offensive than the volto sacro, or 
 " sacred countenance," of our Lord at Luca ? How frightful, 
 again, are the gods worshipped by the Heathen of modern 
 
 times. And even the idols of the old Etruscans, a people of 
 taste, are, as we see them on their monuments, often not 
 merely ugly, but ridiculous. The attraction of ugliness certainly 
 is a puzzle. 
 
 The Black Virgin of Le Puy is actually called the Mother 
 of God ! " Mother of God ! " exclaimed John Knox, when, 
 during his captivity in France, they presented to him a similar 
 
I20 ROME: PAGAN AND PAPAL. 
 
 image to kiss, " Mother of God ! Why, it is only a painted 
 board ! " 
 
 My beauty, too, is, as you may infer from the woodcut, only 
 a painted board. Together with the rest of its kind, it pro- 
 bably originated in a Byzantine type. " Those artists," says 
 Cardinal Wiseman, " occupied the field for centuries ir Italy, 
 and degraded the types of sacred art under revolting fomis." 
 
 However, the revolting forms still retain their hold upon 
 the masses ; or, in other words, upon the depraved taste of 
 idolatrous hearts. 
 
 Addressing a priest in the stately cathedral of Cologne, I 
 asked, '* Why, sir, do you allow in this noble building a thing 
 so contemptible, and so unsuited to the place, as that doll ? " 
 My question referred to a gaudy image of the Virgin in a 
 glass case. 
 
 *' Sir," he replied, " the people like it, and we do not refuse 
 them." 
 
 Yes, " My people love to have it so ! " But who will answer 
 the question which follows : — " What will ye do in the end 
 thereof?" 
 
XX. 
 
 rilE IMAGE OF ST. PETER AT ROME. 
 
 WE will now turn from Noire Dame du Port, and the 
 Black Virgin of Le Puy, to an image more renowned 
 than either of them — the bronze statue of St. Peter, in the great 
 temple called after his name, at Rome. On the next page 
 you will see a picture of it, ugly and vulgar as it is celebrated. 
 How often have I seated myself before it, and watched, with 
 painful interest, its devout worshippers, while every passer-by 
 was careful to show his veneration for the ugly idol ! The 
 scene is an exact repetition of the acts of Heathen ancestors, 
 some two thousand years ago, as described in the lines of 
 Lucretius — 
 
 " So oft the crowd respectful, as they pass, 
 Salute and touch the consecrated brass." 
 
 But what is "the consecrated brass " in this case ? It seems 
 pretty generally agreed that the image, in whole or in part, was 
 re-cast from the bronze of a statue of Jupiter. The author of 
 // Vaticano lllustrato — see Tavola 75 — observes that Torrigio, 
 who wrote of it in the eighth century, believed it to have been 
 executed in the fifth century, by order of Leo the Great. 
 
 "This metal," he says, "which previously served for a false 
 divinity, now serves for a sacred and devout use. It is thus 
 that the Church of Jesus Christ converts the remains of 
 superstition and error to a better cause ; for whereas, before, 
 the metal only exposed human madness, and the folly of the 
 Gentiles, the Church now exhibits it as a monument of faith 
 and devotion. 
 
122 
 
 ROME: PAGAN AND PAPAL. 
 
 " On the apostle's foot are imprinted the kisses of the people 
 who assemble there to obtain the indulgences granted by the 
 Roman Pontiff. 
 
 " Remembering that the bronze from which the statue of 
 the Prince of the Apostles was formed was, in remote times, 
 
 an ornaraent of the Capitol, we will add a few words on the 
 object presented to us. 
 
 "Jupiter Capitolinus was so named from the temple of the 
 god on the Capitoline Hill. In one hand he held the thunder, 
 in the other a javelin. He was covered with a purple robe 
 similar to that of the Roman emperors. 
 
THE IMAGE OF ST. PETER AT ROME. 1 23 
 
 " In the Vatican Basilica, on various annual solemnities, it 
 is also the custom to clothe the statue of St. Peter in full 
 pontifical dress, and so to present it for the worship of the 
 faithful, rich with gold and gems." 
 
 Thus far our author. Here, then, we have successively on 
 
 the two hills, the Capitoline and the Vatican, two great gods — 
 the one belonging to ancient, the other to modern, Rome ; the 
 one Pagan, the other Papal; the one identified with the 
 Empire by the imperial mantle, the other made one with the 
 Papacy by the tiara and pontifical robes. 
 
124 ROME: PAGAN AND PAPAL. 
 
 Jove and Peter are their names : each of them has his hill, 
 his dome, and his throne : each is a dumb idol of brass or 
 bronze : to each belongs gorgeous array, incense is offered 
 to both of them, and they alike receive the adoration and 
 kisses of prostrate multitudes. 
 
 Wherein do the two gods differ ? If we are to look only to 
 outward appearance, certainly the earlier statue of Jupiter, 
 with its Greek inspiration, has some power to attract, whereas 
 the stolid stupidity of its inartistic Roman successor repels even 
 to loathing. But which am I to worship, the Capitoline or 
 the Vatican Jove ? 
 
 Call up some ancient Roman from the dead, show him the 
 "Christian" worship at St. Peter's, and ask him what he 
 thinks. He would at once reply that Rome has not changed 
 her gods, and he would tell the truth. 
 
 But Rome is wise enough to meet the times, and, while she 
 retains the old worship, she retains it under modified forms. 
 She has baptized her ancient gods, and they have come out 
 with new names, in new dresses, in new temples, and with 
 a new cult suited to the age. Of course : but the substance is 
 always the same ; it is but the form that varies. 
 
 The religion of the seven-hilled city is still the religion of 
 Numa, of Tarquin, of the consuls, and of the Caesars ; the old 
 gods are still there, but with changed names, and with Christ 
 and His human mother adopted among them. The Capitoline 
 Jove has moved to the Vatican, but is still the chief of the 
 gods in Rome's Pantheon, though he now holds keys in the 
 place of the thunderbolts, and on festive days is clad in 
 pontifical vestments instead of the imperial mantle. 
 
 Name, place, form, attributes, garments — all these change; 
 but the substance, the perpetual brass, never ! 
 
XXI. 
 
 THE ADORATION OF IMAGES BY KISSING. 
 
 WHILE I was walking ia Antwerp cathedral, some 
 years ago, my attention was arrested by a man who 
 was very devoutly and affectionately kissing the recumbent 
 figure of a saint. He did this in a most orderly and systematic 
 manner, first from top to toe, and then from heel to head, 
 completely covering the idol with lines of kisses. 
 
 Picart (vol. i., p. 13) thus refers to this strange custom of 
 ancient and modern Heathenism. 
 
 " Another ceremony common among idolaters is kissing the 
 objects which they venerate. They kiss their idols, addressing 
 them in soft and tender language, holding them by the knees, 
 and offering them fruits and flowers. 
 
 "Influenced by a like superstition, the Mohammedan pilgrims 
 kiss a certain black stone at Mecca. And the modern Indian 
 and American idolaters observe a similar custom. 
 
 " With us, the priest kisses the altar, the cross, the relics, the 
 thurible, the paten, and the chalice. And again the priest's 
 own hand is kissed. 
 
 "But when the devotees cannot embrace the object of their 
 adoration, they kiss their own hands, and thus send their 
 kisses to the gods. This act of devotion is most common 
 among the Spanish and Portuguese, who make the form of the 
 cross with the first finger and thumb, and then kiss the hand 
 in honour of the image from which they are separated by 
 distance." 
 
 In writing on the same subject. Blunt observes — " At 
 
126 ROME: PAGAN AND PAPAL. 
 
 present nothing meets the eye more frequently than the wood 
 of a crucifix deeply worn by the lips of the devout. Nay, I 
 have seen the waxen image of a saint duly provided with a 
 bronze foot to prevent attrition ; and the toe of the statue of 
 St. Peter formed out of the metal of an old Jupiter Capitolinus, 
 in the great church of the same saint at Rome, is worn per- 
 fectly bright. 
 
 " It appears also, from Cicero, that the mouth and chin of 
 the image of Hercules at Agrigentum in Sicily were polished 
 in the same way. 'In that temple,' says he, 'there is a bronze 
 statue of Hercules, than which it would not be easy to find 
 anything more beautiful. Its mouth and chin are slightly 
 worn away, because the people, in their prayers and thanks- 
 givings, are not only in the habit of worshipping, but also of 
 kissing it.' 
 
 ■''Lucretius, again, tells us that, in his day (d. B.C. 55), the 
 hands of the idols were apt to suffer in a similar manner. 
 
 "Then, near the doors, the reverend statues stand, 
 Worn down, and polished, in the outstretched hand. 
 So oft the crowd respectful, as they pass. 
 Salute and touch the consecrated brass." 
 
 " Where it may be remarked, that the people offered this 
 salutation in passing, as they entered or quitted the temples ; 
 the very custom actually existing at this day." 
 
 In the writer's work, TJie Cross : Heathen and Christian, 
 p. 83, will be found an illustration and description of the 
 bronze crucifix at the Mamertine Prison, in Rome, the face of 
 which is entirely worn away by the kisses of the people. 
 This crucifix forms a suitable pendant to Cicero's Hercules — 
 the one adored at the present time in Rome, the other formerly 
 worshipped in Sicily. Intervening centuries have not changed 
 the worship : it is of the same kind, whether offered to Jesus 
 or to Hercules. It is the outgoing, the sincere affection, cf 
 the unregenerate heart towards forbidden idols — the religion 
 
THE ADORATION OF IMAGES BY KISSING. 127 
 
 of nature, unrestrained, uninstructed by grace, and directly 
 opposed to revelation. 
 
 The bronze of the rude idol in St. Peter's at Rome is 
 brightly polished by the kissings and rubbings of the worship- 
 pers: the Pope himself kisses it when he visits the Basilica. 
 There is a picture of this statue in the work of Ciacconius 
 (4 vols, fob, Rome, 1677), together with the following in- 
 formation. 
 
 "Cardinal Baronius (d. 1607) was the first to introduce its 
 worship : for, going daily to St. Peter's, he placed his head 
 under its feet, devoutly kissing them and saying, '■Pax et 
 obedientia.' Which laudable custom others followed, to the 
 wearing away of the brass of the statue." 
 
 In the church, Sopra Minerva, near the Pantheon, the foot of 
 Michael Angelo's marble statue of Christ has been worn by 
 kisses, and is protected by a bronze sandal : needlessly so 
 now, however ; for it has no worshippers. There is, strange 
 to say, a fashion in worship as in other things. And at Rome, 
 the worship of Christ — I speak with reverence and sorrow — 
 has gone out of fashion, and a goddess has taken the place of 
 God. It is Mary, and not Jesus, who reigns there. 
 
 If you doubt this, sit for a while, as I have done, before the 
 statue just mentioned — or any other statue of the " Man of 
 sorrows " — and observe how many worshippers you have to 
 record. Then go to the Augustino, and stay a while before 
 the famous image of Mary in that church. Write the sum of 
 the multitude of her adorers, and you will see that, if He has 
 units, she has hundreds for each of them. 
 
 Often have I sat contemplating the scene in the latter 
 church, which is very remarkable, and very sad. The sick, 
 the sorry, the careworn, the afflicted, and the earnest, resort 
 thither : and can you wonder ? For the statue they believe to 
 be miraculous ; and she whom it represents is their divinity. 
 
 As I sat before the image, and the suppliants defiled 
 
128 ROME: PAGAN AND PAPAL. 
 
 between it and me, I used to imagine myself in the Rome of 
 eighteen hundred years ago, occupying a seat in the temple of 
 the healing god ^^sculapius. 
 
 And just as in his temple there 7uerc, so in Mary's church 
 there are, votive offerings suspended on the walls around, and 
 votive pictures, too, declaratory of healings wrought, and of 
 favours received. 
 
 Then there is the mysterious holy oil, which supplies the 
 ever-burning light, and is good for anointing — mighty to heal. 
 The deaf and the blind anoint themselves with it ; and I have 
 watched mothers blessing the eyes, ears, and members of their 
 babes with its potent touch. Awful in the sight of these 
 worshippers is the idol of superhuman size, and gemmed and 
 bedecked with gold and silver. The people bow before it, 
 kiss the dust, as I can testify, in their profound reverence. 
 The foot of the image has been partly kissed away by the 
 devotees, and the marble is now protected with bronze. 
 
 Strange and sad scenes of genuine Heathenism have I, at 
 various times, seen enacted before that idol. If, reader, you 
 desire to investigate the worship of the Roman i)eople, go to 
 the church of S. Augustino, and, if possible, on a fete day. 
 Till you have visited either this, or some similar place of 
 materialistic worship — there are many such in Rome- — you can 
 scarcely realize the identity of Pagan with Papal Rome. 
 
 How exclusively and continually has adoration by kissing 
 characterized false worship. 
 
 Two hundred years before Christ, men kissed the beard of 
 Hercules at Agrigentum. 
 
 Six hundred years before that period, apostate Israel had 
 turned to the Egyptian god Apis, and the rule of worship was 
 — " Let the men that sacrifice kiss the calves " (Hos. xiii. 2). 
 
 A century earlier, and Israel was bowing the knee to Baal, 
 and adoring with kisses the blood-stained idol of Phoenicia. 
 (i Kings xix. 18). 
 
THE ADORATION OF IMAGES BY KISSING. 
 
 129 
 
 Thus, in the multitudinous kisses which are daily bestowed 
 upon images in Rome, and wherever Rome is obeyed, we 
 cannot but recognize a continuance of the old world's idolatr)^ 
 The only change is that the images of Jesus and Mary are 
 substituted for those of Hercules and Apis ; so that we have 
 a new edition of the old religion in a Church binding. 
 
 It may, however, be urged that the modern images are 
 miraculous. 
 
 Well, that is just what Livy and most other ancient authors 
 assure us was the case with the statues of the gods in their days. 
 
 Bas-relief on Arch of Titus representing that Emperor's deification 
 
XXII. 
 
 THE CLOTHING OF IMAGES. 
 
 WE have already referred to the clothing of images ; and 
 any one who has visited Roman Catholic churches on 
 the Continent will have seen statues of the Virgin dressed in 
 splendid robes, and decked with gold, precious stones, and 
 pearls. 
 
 The Duke de Montpensier was, some little time ago, 
 lauded in the Tablet, because he had presented the Virgin 
 with a magnificent dress of tissue of gold trimmed with white 
 lace, and with a silver crown ; and a similar act of piety is 
 recorded of the dissolute Queen of Spain. 
 
 Yet this, too, is imitated from the old Pagan worship, in the 
 sacred ceremonies of which the clothing of the gods occupied 
 an important place. 
 
 Thus, when Hecuba, the Trojan queen, was about to lead 
 the penitential procession through the streets of Troy to the 
 temple of Pallas, she received the following direction : — 
 
 " Bring your gifts ; and on the knees 
 Of fair-haired Pallas place the fairest robe 
 In all the house, the amplest, best esteemed." 
 
 The royal lady obeyed, and 
 
 " Her fragrant chamber sought, wherein were stor'd 
 Rich garments, by Sidonian women work'd, 
 Whom god-like I'aris had from Sidon brought, 
 Sailing the broad sea o'er, the selfsame path 
 By which the high-born Helen he convey 'd. 
 Of these, the richest in embroidery, 
 The amplest, and the brightest, as a star 
 
THE CLOTHING OF IMAGES. 
 
 J3I 
 
 Refulgent, plac'd with care beneath the rest, 
 The Queen her offering bore to Pallas' shrine : 
 She went, and with her many an ancient dame. 
 But when the shrine they reach 'd on Ilium's height, 
 Theano, fair of face, the gates unlock'd, 
 Daughter of Cisseus, sage Antenor's wife, 
 By Trojans nam'd at Pallas' shrine to serve. 
 They with deep moans to Pallas raised their hands ; 
 But fair Theano took the robe, and plac'd 
 On Pallas' knees." 
 
 See Homer's ///(?(/, vi. 269-311. 
 
 This extract establishes the antiquity of the custom beyond 
 question, and points as clearly to its unchristian origin. 
 
 The statue of St. Peter in its ordinary dress I have already 
 introduced to the reader. Above is the same idol as it appears, 
 in the nave of the grand Basilica, in full dre>s on a fete day. 
 
132 
 
 ROME: PAGAN AND PAPAL. 
 
 The second woodcut, given below, represents the Heathen 
 uoddess Cybele, the wife of Saturn, the Idcean mother, also 
 clothed in her best dress. 
 
 She was usually called the mother of the gods, and this 
 figure is taken from Montfaucon (tome i., part i., p. 19). In 
 point of dress, she certainly forms a good pendant to the 
 
 Christian saint. 13ut from whence did she derive her very 
 singular costume with its striking ecclesiasticism ? Evidently 
 from the same source as that from which Roman Catholic 
 ecclesiastical dress came. And if the reader will take the 
 trouble to examine the Assyrian and Babylonian antiquities in 
 the British Museum, he will probably come to a conclusion 
 as to what that source was. 
 
XXIII. 
 
 THE MOTHER AND CHILD. 
 
 WE must not dismiss the subject of the images of the gods 
 without saying a few words respecting the most famous 
 and universal of all — that of the Mother and Child. 
 
 If we examine old pictures of the Madonna, or Madonna 
 and Child, in the National Gallery, we cannot but be struck 
 with the fact that she is rarely, if ever, made to resemble a 
 Jewish woman ; but is of fair complexion, with blue eyes and 
 golden hair. At first an easy explanation seems to offer itself. 
 Of course the painters naturally sought their models among the 
 beautiful women of their own country. But when we reflect 
 that these painters were for the most part Italians or Spaniards, 
 such a suggestion only increases the perplexity, and confirms 
 whatever suspicion we may have previously entertained, that 
 there is some distinct reason for so general a practice. 
 
 The fact is that here again we have pure Paganism under a 
 Christian name. The so-called Virgin Mary and Infant Jesus 
 are nothing more nor less than the yellow-haired Aphrodite and 
 Eros of the Greeks — the Venus and Cupid of the Romans. 
 Under the disguise of Mary, there is still being carried on the 
 worship of the goddess of nature — of her who, with a mere 
 variation of name and appearance to suit the peculiar race of 
 her votaries, has ever been the chief object of veneration to 
 Pagan peoples. She is the Mylitta, or " great goddess," of 
 the Assyrians and Babylonians, the Astarte of the Phcenicians 
 the Isis of the Egyptians, the Diana of the Ephesians. Her 
 shrines may be found in India : the Jesuit Missionaries were 
 
134 ROME: PAGAN AND PAPAL. 
 
 astonished when they met with her in Thibet, China, and 
 Japan : she was known to the Aztecs of Mexico. There is, 
 perhaps, no part of the world in which some traces of her may 
 not be detected. 
 
 She seems to have made her formal entrance into the Church 
 through some miserable compromise at the first Council of 
 Nice. Hosius and the orthodox party found that they would 
 be outnumbered by the Arians, and, therefore, invited the 
 Egyptians to come to the rescue, offering to condone their 
 worship of Isis on condition that she should thenceforth be 
 called the Virgin Mary. Consequently we find the Melchite 
 section at the Council of Nice holding that there were three 
 Persons in the Trinity — the Father, the Virgin Mary, and the 
 Messiah their Skni ! " And thus," says Newman, in his Develop- 
 itient, p. 405, "the Arian controversy opened a question which it 
 did not settle. It discovered a new sphere, if we may so speak, 
 in the realms of light, to which the Church had not yet assigned 
 its inhabitant. . . . Thus there was 'a wonder in Heaven' ! A 
 throne was seen far above all created powers, mediatorial, inter- 
 cessory, a title archetypal, a crown bright as the Morning Star, 
 a glory issuing from the eternal throne, robes pure as the 
 heavens, and a sceptre over all. And who was the predestined 
 heir of this majesty ? Who was that Wisdom, and what was her 
 name? 'The mother of fair love, and fear, and holy hope,' 
 'exalted like a palm-tree in Engeddi, and a rose-plant in 
 Jericho,' ' created from the beginning before the world,' in God's 
 counsels, ' and in Jerusalem was her power ' ! The vision is 
 found in the Apocalypse, a woman clothed with tlie sun, 
 and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown 
 of twelve stars. The votaries of Mary do not exceed the 
 true faith, unless the blasphemers of her Son come up to it. 
 The Church of Rome is not idolatrous, unless Arianism is 
 orthodoxy." 
 
 Such is the triumphant strain of an English Cardinal over 
 
PLATE I. 
 
 HEATHEK. CHRISTIAN. 
 
 1. The Egyptian Venus. 7. M.idonna and Child. 
 
 2. The Mexican. 
 
 3. The Indian. 
 
 4. The Cyprian. 
 
 5. The As.syrian. 
 
 6. The Chinese. 
 
PLATE II. 
 
 I. Mary suckling her Infant. 
 c. Lactuary for milk of Mary. 
 
 3. Lieb-Frauen-iNIilch. 
 
 4. Indian Venus and Babe. 
 
 5. Isis and Horus. Horus was the son of Isis, whose name was changed to Jesus when 
 his mother became the Virgin Mary, about the time of the first Council of Nice. Though Isis 
 was a mother, the ancient Egyptians believed in her perpetual virginity ; and King, in his 
 (inosiics and Their Remains, describes a sard in his collection representing her standing 
 before her husband Serapis, with the legend, 17 /cupia'Tcis 0171^, " Immaculate is our lady 
 Isis." Here, then, we have the source from whence the doctrine of the Immaculate Con- 
 ception was derived. There is no hint of such a thing in the Scriptures, but there is in 
 Egyptian Paganism. Several other things, supposed to be Christian, come from these 
 Egyptian deities, and among them the I.H.S. so prominent in churches. This device 
 was copied from Egyptian altars, where it stood for the initials of the Pagan Trinity — 
 Isis, Horus, and Serapis. 
 
 6. The Milky Way. 
 
 7. The Hindoo goddess Siva — Nature — standing on a sea of milk pressed from her own 
 bosom. 
 
 8. Diana — Nature — mother and feeder of all. 
 
 9. The Milk Cave of Bethlehem, formed in white chalk. "The. friars," says Mr. 
 Stephens, "sometimes show a grotto where they say the Virgin took refuge from a 
 shower of rain, and her milk overflowed ; and now there is a faith among the people that, 
 if a woman to whom nature has denied the power of nursing her children comes to this 
 grotto, and prays before the altar, the fountain of life will be opened to her. Nor was 
 the virtue of the place confined to those who should resort there in person ; for the friars 
 having prayed for, had obtained, a delegation of the Virgin's power ; and a small portion 
 of white powder from the rock, swallowed in a little water, would be equally efficacious to 
 women having faith ! " — Gadsby's IVandcrings. 
 
THE MOTHER AND CHILD. I 37 
 
 the work of those who opened the flood gates of corruption 
 upon the Church. Once admitted, the Pagan goddess, under 
 her false name, soon became the popular favourite, and was 
 quickly allowed to take her seat as Queen of Heaven within 
 the Church, just as she had previously done without its pale- 
 As soon as we understand her origin and real nature, we are 
 no longer liable to that bewilderment which was recently 
 expressed by the reviewer of a London newspaper at the fact 
 that infidels like Strauss and Comte worked round, in spite of 
 their apparent antagonism, to the same conclusion as Cardinal 
 Manning — to the worship of a young woman, of about thirty 
 years of age, with a child. 
 
 Our plates (I. and II.) will illustrate this worship, and give 
 some idea of its universality. 
 
XXIV. 
 
 VOTIVE OFFERINGS. 
 
 AMONG the many Pagan usages in connection with the 
 images of the gods was that of suspending, in their 
 shrines, offerings which had been vowed in times of distress or 
 anxiety. If the trouble had been disease, a model of the limb, 
 or part of the body, affected would be set up as a testimony to 
 the healing power of the god. If his interference had been — • 
 as was supposed — successfully entreated for sick animals, or 
 for the safe return of a ship, figures of the creatures or of the 
 vessels would be hung up, and so on. 
 
 This practice has been largely adopted by the Church of 
 Rome, as the cuts will show. They are figures of votive offer- 
 ings for the most part collected and presented to the Bristol 
 Museum by the author : the material of the antiques is terra- 
 cotta, and that of the moderns white metal, both being coarse 
 in their structure. They are arranged in two divisions, the 
 first consisting of Pagan, and the second of Roman Catholic 
 offerings : and they are numbered in pairs, so as to illustrate 
 each other (see Plate III.). 
 
PLATE III. 
 
 1. Ancient Roman lady, possibly offered 
 after deliverance from death. 
 
 2. A baby. 
 
 3. Roman citizen devoting his heart to 
 Pan. 
 
 4. Female head. 
 
 5. An ear in terra-cotta. 
 
 6. Part of face. 
 
 7. An eye. 
 
 8. Woman's breast, life-size. 
 g. Hand, life-size. 
 
 10. Le?. 
 
 11. Foot. 
 
 12. Horse. 
 
 13. Sheep, in terra-cotta. 
 
 14. Pig. 
 13. Cow. 
 16. Ship. 
 
 ROMAN CATHOLIC. 
 
 1. Portuguese lady. Each of these is 
 about two inches high. 
 
 2. A Bambino. Eleven inches high 
 purchased by me at Rome. 
 
 3. A youth making a similar offering. 
 
 4. Female head. 
 
 5. An ear in silver. 
 
 6. Part of face in white metal. 
 
 7. An eye. 
 
 8. Woman's breasts, life-size, 
 g. Hand, life-size. 
 
 10. Leg, in wax. In this case I saw the 
 patient in the shop explaining to the artist 
 where the sore had been 
 
 11. Foot. 
 
 12. Horse. 
 
 n. Sheep, in silver. 
 
 14- Pig. 
 
 15. Cow. 
 
 16. Ship. 
 
Iris with Nimbus. 
 
 XXV. 
 
 THE NIMBUS. 
 
 EVERYONE has noticed the disc of Hght, or kiminous 
 circle, which, in ecclesiastical pictures, usually surrounds 
 the head of the Virgin Mary, or of a saint, as well as that of 
 Christ. It is called the nimbus, or sometimes, the aureola ; 
 although the technical meaning of the latter term is restricted 
 to the oval or circular halo which surrounds the whole body of 
 a saint. 
 
 It is often supposed to be an exclusively Christian symbol, 
 indicative of divinity or holiness: but such an illusion is quickly 
 dispelled by a little research. For it appears in representations 
 of the gods and goddesses of Babylon, of Greece and Rome, 
 and even of India and China. A passage of Virgil — ^n. xii. 
 162-4— will give us some clue to its meaning. 
 
 In describing Latinus, the poet says : — 
 
 " Cui tempora circum 
 Aurati bis sex radii fulgentia cingunt, 
 Solis avi specimen." 
 
 " Twelve golden licams around his temples play, 
 To mark his lineage from the god of day." 
 
 It appears, therefore, that the nimbus is the symbol of the sun- 
 
142 ROME: PAGAN AND PAPAL. 
 
 deity, or denotes some connection with him. Hence Apollo 
 is often represented with it. And in a well-known painting, 
 found in Pompeii, of the scene between Ulysses and Circe, the 
 head of the latter is surrounded by a luminous circle, because 
 she was the daughter of the Sun. But in course of time, this 
 ornament seems to have been given to any deity : for the Latin 
 commentator Servius, in interpreting Virgil's description of 
 Pallas, 
 
 " Nimbo effulgens et Gorgone sceva," 
 
 explains nimbus as " the luminous fluid which encircles the 
 heads of the gods." 
 
 In earlier times, however, the meaning of the symbol was 
 more confined, and doubtless another expression of it is to be 
 found in the circular tonsure of priests and monks. To how 
 early a period of the world's history this custom dates back, 
 we may judge by the fact that God warned the Israelitish 
 priests against it, by the mouth of IMoses, in the words, 
 " They shall not make baldness upon their head " (Lev. xxi. 5). 
 It was, therefore, no doubt practised by the Egyptian priests 
 in those days, as we know it to have been by the Chaldean, 
 and may be traced in many parts of the world. For instance, 
 more than five hundred years before Christ, Buddha shaved 
 his head, and commanded the tonsure to his followers. And 
 again, Herodotus, when writing of the Arabs, about four and 
 a half centuries before Christ, says, " They have but these 
 two gods, to wit, Bacchus and Urania (that is to say, the sun 
 and moon), and they say that, in their mode of cutting the hair, 
 they follow Bacchus. Now their practice is to cut it in a ring 
 away from the temples " (iii. 8). The same custom was common 
 to the priests of Osiris and Isis, and also to those of Pagan 
 Rome. In fact it may be traced from Egypt and Babylon, 
 through all the great Pagan systems, down to Papal Rome. 
 
 But to understand its full significance, we must remember 
 
THE NIMBUS. 1 43 
 
 that in the obscene nature-worship which is at the bottom of 
 all false religions, the sun — and also the kindred element of 
 fire — is the male emblem, and consequently the meaning of 
 his sign was extended in such a way as we cannot here 
 describe. A feminine emblem, used in connection with it, was 
 what is now called the pallium. This was often adorned with 
 crosses, but not in remembrance of Christ, however convenient 
 it may sometimes be to give such an explanation : for these 
 were phallic crosses. And it is high time that Christians 
 should understand a fact of which sceptics have been long 
 talking and writing, namely, that the cross was the central 
 symbol of all ancient Paganism. What it represents must 
 remain untold : but it was probably made the medium of our 
 Lord's death through the crafty devices of the Wicked One, 
 into whose hands He was for a while delivered, with a view to 
 the future corruption of Christianity, and the carrying on under 
 its name of all the abominations of the Heathen. 
 
 Earth is, indeed, set thick with snares, and teems with tempta- 
 tions and enticements from the simplicity of the faith. " But 
 the wisdom that is from above, is first pure ; " and " blessed is 
 the man that endureth temptation : for when he hath been 
 approved, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord 
 promised to them that love Him." 
 
 Derived as it was from the Pagans, the nimbus is not of 
 frequent occurrence in Christian representations during the 
 times of persecution — the first three centuries, and part of the 
 fourth. Nor is it often found in the Catacombs, as a com- 
 petent authority, M. Didron, informs us. But as soon as 
 unrestrained corruption set in, this Heathen symbol was openly 
 adopted by the Church, and began to appear upon the heads 
 of her deities, angels, and saints, as well as upon those of 
 Jupiter, Apollo, Mercury, and the Heathen Emperors. From 
 that time to this it became so general that it is unnecessary 
 to give examples here, though one or two will be found, in 
 
144 
 
 ROME: PAGAN AND PAPAL. 
 
 company with their Pagan models, in the large plate at the 
 end of the chapter. 
 
 We select, however, three pictures from Didron, and one 
 from our own collection, to illustrate less known uses of the 
 symbol. 
 
 The first is that of a Persian king, whose head is surrounded 
 by a pyramidal flamboyant nimbus. 
 
 This figure seems to prove the truth of Didron's observation, 
 that in the East the nimbus is not merely an attribute of holi- 
 ness, but " a characteristic of physical energy, no less than of 
 moral strength ; of civic or political power, as well as of 
 religious authority." Presently we may, perhaps, be able to 
 show how this comes about. 
 
 That which surrounds the head of the king is, doubtless, a 
 flame — sun and fire worship are closely connected — and we 
 may compare Virgil's lambere flamina comas. 
 
THE NIMBUS. I45 , 
 
 In the South Kensington Museum, I have noticed several 
 Indian miniatures with similar adornment. And at the present 
 moment a Chinese saint or goddess — figured below — with fine 
 circular nimbus, looks down upon me benevolently from my 
 own study walls. 
 
 The next illustration is somewhat startling. It is ta]cen 
 from a Byzantine miniature of the tenth century, and " repre- 
 sents Satan standing before Job, who is seated sadly upon the 
 ruins of his house. The demon is nimbed, and holds in his 
 hand a brazier wherewith to set on fire the habitations he has 
 overthrown." 
 
 But probably Satan has a better right to the nimbus than 
 any one ; for, in his character of Prince of this World and of 
 the Power of the Air, he seems, under the name of the Sun- 
 god, to have been the real object of worship from the earliest 
 times down to the modern Yezidis, who still venerate him as 
 Sheik Shems, or the Lord Sun. His name Satan becomes 
 Sheitan in Chaldee, and in Greek is changed into Titan, a 
 
 10 
 
146 
 
 ROME: PAGAN AND PAPAL. 
 
 name applied to one of the race of giants who rebelled against 
 the gods, and also to the Sun-god. For more on this subject 
 see Eart/is Earliest Ages (Hodder and Stoughton), chap. iii. 
 
 If, then, the nimbus originally belonged to the Prince of 
 this World, it is easy to understand how it became a symbol 
 of all that he gives, and was used as a characteristic of 
 
 physical energy and of civil and political power, as well as 
 of authority in certain religious systems. 
 
 After what has been said, our fourth illustration, from a 
 miniature of the twelfth century, will follow naturally. 
 
 " It represents," says M. Didron, " the seven-headed mon- 
 ster of the Apocalypse, the leopard with claws like a bear. 
 His heads have a nimbus of blue, and one — that in the centre, 
 the smallest in reality, but unquestionably the greatest in its 
 
7 HE NIMBUS. 
 
 147 
 
 hierarchical importance, and sovereign of the others — has a 
 crimson nimbus of the colour of fire. One of the heads is 
 
148 ROME: PAGAN AND PAPAL. 
 
 without a nimbus; it is undoubtedly intended for that which, 
 as we are told in the Apocalypse, was wounded to death." 
 
 In the large plate, the illustrations on the left, numbered i to 
 6, are Heathen examples of the nimbus. No. i is the god 
 Pan; No. 2, Nemesis, the goddess of Retribution; No. 3, a 
 Heathen emperor ; No. 4, the Moon ; No. 5, the Sun ; and 
 No. 6, the Hindoo deity Siva. 
 
 Of the Christian figures on the right. No. i is a monk ; No. 
 2, a saint; No. 3, a Christian empress; No. 4, a Christian 
 queen ; and No. 5, a figure from St. Peter's at Rome. 
 
-:^k 
 
 
 
 " ^n 
 
 
 <-c/~ 
 
 
 
XXVI. 
 
 MARKS OF THE GODS. 
 
 WE have already mentioned the Mamertine Prison. This 
 curious rehc of antiquity was originally constructed by 
 Servius TuUius, after whom it was called the TuUianum. It 
 is supposed to be the most ancient building in Rome — a fact 
 which may, perhaps, be allowed to excuse us if we digress for 
 a i^v^ moments to describe it, before speaking of the miracles 
 said to have been wrought by St. Peter within its gloomy 
 walls. 
 
 It is a dark and horrible place of Oriental pattern — like some 
 prisons in Asia which date back to a time earlier than the 
 founding of Rome — and was used for the confinement and 
 execution of State prisoners. Among its victims we may 
 mention Jugurtha, king of Mauritania, starved to death by 
 IMarius ; the brave Gaul Vercingetorix, killed by order of 
 Julius Caesar; and the accomplices of Catiline, strangled at 
 the bidding of Cicero, who went forth and announced their 
 death to the people by the emphatic word, "Vixerunt!" 
 "They have lived !" The remains of the stairs which he as- 
 cended are still to be seen : they were called the " Scalas 
 Gemonise," or " Steps of Sighs," with which we may compare 
 the " Bridge of Sighs " at Venice. 
 
 Originally there were three prisons, one above the other ; 
 the upper of which, now destroyed, was above ground, and 
 admitted light and air to the prisoners. Immediately beneath 
 this was the middle cell, which was underground, the only 
 access to it being by a man-hole from above. This was the 
 
ISO 
 
 ROME: PAGAN AND FATAL. 
 
 career interior^ the inner or lowest prison ; and those who 
 were confined in it were in darkness and in chains. Under- 
 neath this again was the Carnifieina, or place of torture and 
 execution, represented — but not well, since it is made to seem 
 too spacious — in the cut. 
 
 The vault is small, in the shape of a beehive, and perfectly 
 dark. The condemned was let down into it by a rope, through 
 the aperture, or man-hole, in the ceiling, through which also 
 his body was dragged up again by an iron hook — tincus — after 
 the execution. The small doorway on the left hand, though 
 ancient, does not belong to the original construction ; it gives 
 admission to a low subterranean gallery, now filled with rubbish, 
 but which takes a direction towards the Tiber, and was, perhaps, 
 used for carrying the dead bodies to the river, when they were 
 not dragged out of the prison for exposure on the Gemonian 
 stairs. In speaking of these prisons in his day — B.C. 35 — 
 Sallust says that " the filth, stench, and darkness were 
 terrible." 
 
 Their arrangement reminds one somewhat of the Castle of 
 Chillon, on the Lake Leman ; where there is first the Hall 
 of Justice(!), then the Chamber of Torture, and, lastly, the 
 hatch through which the bodies of the guilty or innocent, as 
 the case might be, were shot into the calm waters below. Nor 
 was Chillon without its oubliette, whence some fifty years ago, 
 together with bones and other debris, there was taken out the 
 high-heeled shoe of one who had been a lady of quality. 
 
MARKS OF THE GODS. 151 
 
 What ages of blood were those, in which men planned their 
 dwellings with a deliberate intention to murder ! 
 
 At Herculaneum, a similar prison to the Mamertine has 
 been discovered with the three parts entire : it would seem, 
 therefore, that this was the usual arrangement of such places 
 in ancient Italy. 
 
 But we must now go on to the two miracles attributed to 
 St. Peter : for although it cannot be proved — and indeed, with 
 the evidence in our possession, is improbable — that he ever 
 was at Rome, tradition, nevertheless, affirms that he suffered 
 imprisonment in the dungeon of the Mamertine. 
 
 The first of the wonders is an intaglio, or indentation, made 
 by his head when, as recorded in the inscription, it was dashed 
 by the " shirri" or police, against the rock. The second is a 
 fountain which, in answer to his prayer, sprang up miraculously 
 to supply water for the baptism of the gaolers whom he had 
 converted. 
 
 In regard to the intaglio, the profile is, as may be seen by 
 the cut at the end of the chapter, exceedingly rude, and is 
 probably a natural or accidental indentation in the tufa-rock, 
 helped out by the chisel. It is on the right side of the fuoderti 
 stone stair as you descend, and the Custode, in passing down, 
 puts his candle within the grating, and so exhibits this manifest 
 imposture. 
 
 The origin assigned to the fountain is equally fabulous : its 
 spring is, perhaps, as old as the present condition of the earth. 
 At any rate it is mentioned by Plutarch as existing in Jugurtha's 
 time, that is, more than a hundred and fifty years before the 
 date of Peter's incarceration, if such an incarceration ever 
 took place. 
 
 Both of these lying wonders are, then, easily refuted — the 
 first, because in ancient times there were no stairs from which 
 Peter's head could have been dashed against the wall; the second, 
 by Plutarch's testimony to the prior existence of the fountain. 
 
152 ^ OME : PA GA N AND PAPAL. 
 
 Let it not, however, be supposed for a moment that St. 
 Peter has the monopoly of wonderful springs at Rome : there 
 are no less than three which are attributed to St. Paul. These 
 may be found in a locality near the city, where the latter 
 apostle is said to have been beheaded, and from them the 
 place takes its name of Tre Fontani-, or Three Fountains. 
 
 The story is that the head of St. Paul, when severed from 
 his body, made three rebounds, and that three fountains sprang 
 up miraculously to mark the sacred spots. " In proof of the 
 truth of the miracle," says Hare, "it is asserted that the water 
 of the first fountain is still warm j that of the second, tepid ; 
 and that of the third, cold ! " 
 
 Unfortunately for the credit of the story, the whole place is 
 so spongy that fountains are to be seen on all sides. Nay, 
 upon entering the church I saw the water, even there, collected 
 in little trenches round the pillars. See Hare's remarks upon 
 the humidity of the place in his Walks in Rome. 
 
 But I noticed one good thing at the Tre Fontani, the 
 Eucalyptus, or blue gum-tree of Australia, which has been 
 planted for some years, and, although it does not show so fine 
 a growth as in the Riviera of Nice, is, nevertheless, exercising 
 a most healthful influence upon that malarious and fever- 
 stricken spot. This fact has been recognised by the Italian 
 government, and a grant of land was made to the Trappist 
 Monastery on condition that a certain number of the healing 
 trees should be planted every year. 
 
 In 1877 a resident monk told me that, since the trees had 
 been established, he and his brethren were able to sleep in 
 the monastery even in unhealthy seasons, which they could 
 not do previously ; so great had been the salubrious effect 
 exercised by the trees on the malaria-poisoned air. He added 
 that they were also accustomed to drink a decoction made 
 from the leaves of the Eucalyptus, which, when bruised, emit a 
 resinous odour. 
 
MARKS OF THE GODS. I 53 
 
 We scarcely need to add that there are many wonderful 
 springs in the mythology of the Romish Church besides those 
 of Peter and Paul. And among others, St. Alban, the tra- 
 ditional, but probably — as we have already shown — fabulous, 
 proto-martyr of England, has the reputation of having called 
 up a spring for the more selfish purpose of satisfying his own 
 thirst. See Fronde's essay on the Abbey which bears this 
 saint's name. 
 
 But, leaving the Romish Church, we find that stories of 
 marks of the gods impressed upon rocks, like that of St. 
 Peter's profile in the Mamertine, and fables of miraculous 
 fountains, are common to all false religions and systems, and 
 seem to possess a powerful attraction for the heart of the 
 natural man. 
 
 The " Mountain of the Holy Foot," in Ceylon, is a good 
 illustration of this statement. It received its name from the 
 supposed impression of a gigantic foot on a stone at its 
 summit, to which multitudes of pilgrims wend their way for 
 the purpose of worshipping the holy mark. 
 
 This mark was affirmed by the Brahmans to be the footstep 
 of Siva, and by the Buddhists to be that of Buddha, when he 
 strode across the ocean on his journey to Siam. The Gnostics, 
 again, attributed it to leu, the Mohammedans declared it to 
 be the print of Adam's foot — whence the mountain is known 
 as Adam's Peak — " whilst the Portuguese were divided be- 
 tween the conflicting claims of St. Thomas and the eunuch 
 of Candace, Queen of Ethiopia." Here, then, we have the 
 authorities of no less than five great religious systems agreeing 
 in their recognition of the sacredness of the same mark, and 
 differing only in regard to the particular divine person to whom 
 it should be assigned. What an instance of the unity of 
 principle in error ! 
 
 Another example of these lying wonders, an impression five 
 feet in length, may be seen in the South Sea Islands' depart- 
 
154 ROME: PAGAN AND PAPAL. 
 
 ment of the British Museum. But a still better illustration 
 was given in the Daily News of November gth, 1878. 
 
 Hoosan Abdul, a town known as far back as the time of 
 Alexander the Great, lies near the Grand Trunk Road from 
 Lahore to Peshawur. Here the Great Mogul Akbar, the 
 illustrious Emperor of Delhi, had a palace ; now the neigh- 
 bourhood is occupied by a British camp. 
 
 The place is famous for a sacred tank, formed by a 
 miraculous spring issuing from beneath a miraculous mark in 
 the rock — a combination of wonders precisely similar to the 
 mark and fountain of St. Peter in the Mamertine. The story 
 given by the Daily News correspondent runs as follows : — 
 
 " It appears that the Sikh apostle, coming one day thirsty 
 and foot-sore to the bottom of the hill — crowned even then 
 by the still more ancient shrine of the Mussulman saint Baba 
 Wali — ventured to demand from the spirit of the earlier ascetic 
 the hospitality of a cup of water. But the good Mohammedan, 
 scandalised even in his grave by such a request from the 
 founder of a new sect among the infidels, ungenerously replied 
 by flinging at his head a massive stone, some dozen tons in 
 weight, which might fairly justify the American phrase of 
 ' putting a rock at him.' Baba Nanak, equal to the occasion, 
 fielded the rock, and, laying it gently on the ground, left the 
 indeUble impression of his fingers upon its solid surface. Of 
 course a spring at once gushed forth to satisfy the apostle's 
 necessities, and the stream which it afforded flows on to this 
 day as proof positive of the miracle. 
 
 " But the irreverent Mohammedans declare that this hand- 
 mark was really cut by a certain Mussulman stone-mason of 
 Hoosan Abdul for his own amusement." 
 
 Such is an Eastern church-fable, to which the Western 
 church-myth bears a close affinity. Both of them evidently 
 came from the Father of Lies, and they combine to demon- 
 strate the fact that, in the matter of fable and the marvellous 
 

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 Wt, 
 
 rTD 
 
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 nurnirr 
 
 7^ 
 
MARK'S OF THE GODS. 1 55 
 
 in religion, the so-called Christian in the West is in agreement 
 with the Pagan of the East. Until a man is convinced of sin 
 by the Spirit of God, and descries the Life which is the Light 
 of men, he abides in darkness, whether he be Christian, 
 Mohammedan, Brahman, or Buddhist. 
 
 On the opposite page we have given a few specimens of 
 marks or impressions supposed to have been made by gods 
 or supernatural powers. No. i represents the mark of Peter's 
 face on the wall of the Mamertine Prison. No. 2, the marks 
 of his knees in connection with the story of Simon Magus. 
 The stone is preserved in the Church of Santa Francesca 
 Romana, at Rome. Nos. 3 and 4, Mary and her tear, both 
 from the Crypt of St. Peter's. The reference is to the story 
 that she was once insulted by some youths who struck her 
 upon the cheek with a ball. No. 5, Marks of St. Peter's knees. 
 No. 6, the feet of Jesus from the Church " Domine quo vadis." 
 The story is that Peter was in Rome during the Neronic per- 
 secution, and that the brethren, fearing for his life, besought 
 him to fly. Moved by their entreaties, he was proceeding to 
 leave the city by night, but as he came to the gate he saw the 
 Lord just entering by it. Whereupon he exclaimed, " Domine 
 quo vadis ? " that is, " Lord, whither art Thou going?" And 
 the answer was, "I am coming hither to be crucified again." 
 Peter felt the rebuke, and turned back into the city; while the 
 Lord left the impression of His feet on the place where He 
 met the apostle. No. 7, the foot of Mary — very common in 
 Spain and Italy. No. 8, the feet of Buddha — very common, 
 nearly as much so as those of Christ. No. 9, the foot of 
 Satan. 
 
XXVII. 
 
 HOLY PLACES. 
 
 IN the previous chapter we had a remarkable example of 
 the way in which superstition clings to places, in the case 
 of the mark on the stone at Adam's Peak, which has been 
 referred to their respective deities and saints by Brahraans, 
 Buddhists, Gnostics, Mahometans, and Roman Catholics, 
 successively. 
 
 The impressions on the rock at Hoosan Abdul, together with 
 the spring and sacred tank, are another instance of the same 
 thing. In early times, the locality was sacred to Buddhist and 
 Brahman divinities ; then, when the sword of Islam had passed 
 over the conquered land, the honours of the place were trans- 
 ferred to two Mahometan saints. Finally, when the Sikh 
 reaction introduced a renovated form of the old Hindoo creed, 
 Buddhist, Brahman, and Mussulman, were all alike deposed, 
 and the rock bore testimony to the miraculous power of Baba 
 Nanak's hand. 
 
 These are remarkable illustrations, in a regular catena, of the 
 tenacity with which natural religion adheres to localities and 
 to wonders. Whether it be in the Mamcrtine Prison, at Rome, 
 Jerusalem, Hoosan Abdul, Benares, Mecca, or elsewhere, the 
 perceptible, the material, and the palpable, is that to which 
 the idolatrous heart of man is ever prone. 
 
 The history of the world testifies to this fact on almost 
 every page, and teaches us how men will risk their very lives 
 to gain or defend that which they believe to be holy ground. 
 Take the Crusades as an example — that marvellous psycho- 
 
HOLY PLACES. 1 57 
 
 logical phenomenon. And the spirit which inspired them has 
 scarcely died out. Even in the days of Louis Philippe we 
 were on the brink of something like them ; when, through 
 priestly influence, the same " holy places " all but involved 
 Europe in the flames of war. 
 
 And again, how much the question of the keys of the holy 
 places had to do with the Crimean War. It is doubtless true, 
 as Kinglake has it, that " a crowd of monks, with base fore- 
 heads, stood quarrelling for a key at the sunny gates of a church 
 in Palestine, but beyond and above, towering high in the 
 misty North, men saw the ambition of the Czars." Yes ; but 
 it was " the strife of the Churches " that inflamed the hearts 
 of the Russian- people, and filled them with enthusiasm to obey 
 the Czar. It was the reiterated assurance — confirmed by 
 signboards purposely set up on the roads — that their march 
 was in the direction of Jerusalem, which fired their zeal, and 
 supplied them with a fanatical devotion. 
 
 Sanctuaries and miracles all men must have, until the Spirit 
 of God has taught them to understand spiritual worship, and 
 has removed from them the veil that is spread over all nations. 
 If the Hindoos have their sacred tank, the Irish have their 
 holy wells ; if Baba Nanak has left the marks of his hands on 
 the rock at Hoosan Abdul, Peter has also imprinted his knees 
 on the stone which is built into the wall of the Church of 
 Sa. Francesca Romana in the Forum. And such facts, multi- 
 tudes of which could be easily collected, help to demonstrate 
 the substantial unity of all natural religions, no matter what 
 the differences of period, race, or mode of worship, may be. 
 
 The religio loci, or local superstition, finds its most abundant 
 illustration in Rome itself, where in many cases the Christian 
 performs his devotions at the sanctuary formerly used by the 
 Pagan Romans. The Temple of Vesta, the goddess of fire, 
 is now the Church of the " Madonna of the Sun ; " that of the 
 twin brothers Romulus and Remus is now dedicated to the 
 
158 ROME: PAGAN AND PAPAL. 
 
 twin brothers S.S. Cosmo and Damiano ; that of Anna Perenna, 
 the sister of Queen Dido, has become, with a slight alteration 
 of name, the Church of Sa. Anna Petronilla, the mother of 
 the Virgin. 
 
 " In converting the profane worship of the Heathen to the 
 sacred worship of the Church," says the author of the Guide 
 Book, Rovia Moderna, " the faithful used to follow rule. 
 Hence the temple of Rhea, 'the mother of the gods,' 'the 
 good goddess,' they have dedicated to the Holy Virgin. In 
 the place once sacred to Apollo now stands the Church of 
 S. APOLL-inaris. The altar of Bacchus becomes that of 
 S. BACC-o. On the site of a temple of Mars is erected the 
 Church of Sa. MAR-tina, the inscription on it being : — 
 
 " ' Martyrii gestans virgo Martina coronam, 
 X Ejecto hinc Martis numine, templa tenet. " 
 
 (Mars hence expelled, Martina, martyred maid, 
 Claims now the worship which to him was paid.) 
 
 The conversion of Apollo's temple upon Mount Soracte into 
 the church and monastery of S. Oreste we have already noticed. 
 But the great type of all these changes is the Pantheon. 
 There it stands, almost perfect, a noble monument of the 
 splendour of Heathen piety, dedicated by Agrippa " to Jupiter 
 and all the gods." 
 
 But the ancient deities have been driven from their abode, 
 and their place has been occupied by a new tribe. 
 Au'os (iaatXivu, rbv At" i^eXrjXaKW';. 
 
 The king has been deposed, and a queen has succeeded ; for 
 Pope Boniface HI. expelled Jupiter and all the gods, and 
 conveyed the building to St. Mary the Virgin and all the 
 saints. 
 
XXVIII. 
 
 MODERN PILGRIMS. 
 
 IN talking of holy places, one's mind instinctively turns to the 
 pilgrims who frequent them ; and I am now going to say 
 a word or two concerning these people — nothing, however, 
 connected with famous stories and times long past, which my 
 readers might get from other books, but merely a few trifling 
 incidents of my own experience among modern pilgrims. 
 
 The year 1877 was the Jubilee at Rome, and, on the 5th of 
 May, I found myself there in the midst of many pilgrims, French, 
 German, Flemish, arid some EngUsh — quite two hundred of 
 them were in the hotel. 
 
 And what sort of people are pilgrims ? Divest your mind, 
 reader, of all association with Chaucer's Canterbury Tales ; do 
 not think of poor Ophelia's ditty — 
 
 " How should I your tnie love know 
 
 From another one ? ^ 
 
 By his cockle hat and staff, 
 And his sandal shoon." 
 
 For modern pilgrims are very prosaic persons, just like every- 
 body else. Nor do they think of toiling along the hard road 
 with peas in their shoes : they travel in first and second class 
 carriages ; nay, I have even seen them luxuriating in coiipcs- 
 faiiteiiils. 
 
 After journeying from Pisa with about a hundred of them, 
 I have lived among them ever since, and find that, as in 
 Chaucer's time, they know how to enjoy themselves, and are 
 by no means dolorous company. Yesterday was Friday, and a 
 
l60 ROME: PAG AM AND PAPAL. 
 
 jour inaigre ; consequently we were not allowed flesh, but 
 there was no reason to regret its absence. We sat down, a 
 hundred and twenty in number, to a better dinner than that of 
 the day before : there was plenty, variety, and delicacy, with 
 abundance of good wine, and the meal was enlivened by much 
 fun and talk. It was a strange fast ! 
 
 But, to enter upon particulars, here is a specimen of a 
 fasting dejeimer a la fourchette^ or second breakfast. 
 
 Opposite to me sat a lady and gentleman, and, being curious 
 to see how modern pilgrims fasted, I watched them. This was 
 their meal : — A poached egg apiece ; a boiled egg apiece ; 
 macaroni with sauce and grated parmesan for one ; two little 
 red mullets and lemon for one ; artichokes ct Vhuile for two — 
 with plenty of bread and wine. The lady finished her repast 
 with a glass of Chartreuse. 
 
 A little incident set the opinions of these good people upon 
 pilgrim-fasting in a still stronger light. The lady, a charming 
 young Frenchwoman, put a piece of fish into her mouth, and 
 I observed her delicate cheek flushing indignantly. " Ccst 
 froid," said she ; and with some little anger pushed the plate 
 from her, as she called to the garcon to remove it. 
 
 So evidently, from my experience both of the dinner and of 
 the dejeimer, fasting pilgrims are particular in regard to their 
 meals, and must have proper sauces and adjuncts, with every- 
 thing in plenty and everything en regie. 
 
 On my first Friday here I made an amusing mistake. The 
 hotel possesses two spacious dining-rooms adjoining each 
 other, and, on entering the principal one at dinner-time, I was 
 confronted by the chief waiter, a very fat man, who — according 
 to the custom on meagre days — without any preface, addressed 
 every guest as he came in with the to me mysterious words, 
 " Gras 071 Maigre ? " 
 
 Not being prepared for the inquiry, " Fat or Lean ? " I was 
 taken quite aback, and for the moment could not make it out, 
 
MODERN PILGRIMS. l6l 
 
 the absurdity of the connection between the very fat man and 
 maigre helping considerably to push my mind off the scent. 
 So, following instinctively, I suppose, the grossness of nature, I 
 replied " Gras /" and sat down upon the nearest vacant seat. 
 However, I soon repented of my choice, rose, and went into 
 the other room. 
 
 The pilgrims at the time in Rome were mostly French. On 
 one of their grand field days I went, at eleven o'clock in the 
 morning, to see them assembling at the foot of the great Vatican 
 stairs, the scala regia, on their way to an interview with Pio 
 Nono, which, a long time before, had been arranged for that 
 noon. Being over fifteen hundred in number, they spent more 
 than an hour in assembling, during a part of which time the 
 great bell of St. Peter's just above them was pouring forth its 
 mighty voice. 
 
 The Pope met them in the ducal hall of the Vatican — a 
 noble room, but, to the French, of inauspicious memory; for its 
 painted walls commemorate the massacre of St. Bartholomew, 
 1572, when some thirty or forty thousand of their country- 
 men were slaughtered. The Pope of that time, Gregory XIII., 
 went in solemn procession to the basilicas to thank God for 
 the bloody deed, and ordered Vasari to record it in three large 
 pictures. I have often seen them, but not lately, since the 
 public are now excluded. 
 
 Among the many pilgrims, I met with one who greatly 
 interested me, a very ancient man, and a senator of the 
 kingdom, Monsignore Di G — — , Bishop of C., in South Italy» 
 I won his heart by certain little courtesies at breakfast, where 
 we used to meet, and mention him to show how diverse 
 Italian habits are to our own. His breakfast did not include 
 anything to eat, but consisted of one cup only of black coffee, 
 with a wine-glassful of brandy poured into it. 
 
 After breakfast he used to go to a neighbouring church, the 
 steps of which he could scarcely ascend for very age. And, 
 
 1 1 
 
1 62 ROME: PAGAN AND PAPAL. 
 
 Strange to say, he had no servant. One morning I followed 
 him, with the intention of offering my arm to help him up the 
 steps. But lo ! he was leaving for Naples, after his light 
 breakfast ; and I could do no more than assist him into the 
 omnibus. 
 
 The French pilgrims in Rome were from six dioceses. 
 
 Among those at our hotel was the Bishop of Brieux, with his 
 
 Breton flock. It was interesting to see so many bishops passing 
 
 up the Vatican stairs, from France and other countries. Some 
 
 of th^m were splendid in their apparel, and green, gold, white, 
 
 purple, and violet, delighted the eye. Even military pomp 
 
 must yield the palm to ecclesiastical. Soldiers have indeed the 
 
 advantage of number and solidity of movement ; but in beauty 
 
 and costliness of dress the priests far surpass them. They are 
 
 the most gorgeously attired men in the Western world, just as 
 
 the Greek priests are in the Eastern : yet both of these are 
 
 sworn to renounce the pomps and vanities of this wicked world ! 
 
 There were but very few laymen among the fifteen hundred 
 
 pilgrims ; the number was mainly made up of priests and 
 
 women. The latter were all in black, with black veils, the 
 
 Court dress of the old regime, which was and is very strict. 
 
 Many of both sexes were carrying bags, bundles, boxes, packets, 
 
 and parcels — a proceeding which seemed a little inconsistent 
 
 with Court dresses. However, the mystery was soon unravelled; 
 
 for I noticed some persons carrying exposed in their arms the 
 
 things which the majority had enclosed in cases. It appeared 
 
 that the packages contained rosaries, medals, crosses, and such 
 
 wares, which were being conveyed to the Vatican to receive 
 
 the Pope's blessing, in order that they might thenceforth act 
 
 as charms. It was curious to see how great a weight of these 
 
 things some of the ladies were cheerfully sustaining. Now I 
 
 understood the meaning of those cigar boxes and various 
 
 parcels which I had seen priests and others carrying about 
 
 the streets for some days previously. 
 
MODERN PILGRIMS. 1 63 
 
 In regard to the ranks of society from which the pilgrims 
 came, I was surprised to see none, or almost none, of the 
 peasant class ; there were, perhaps, half-a-dozen well-to-do 
 women from North Holland. No, on every side there were dress 
 coats, and black veils thrown over the head. I did see one 
 lady in white stockings, and another in boots, and a priest with 
 a hole in his stocking — poor man, he had no wife to mend it ! — 
 but otherwise the dressing seemed to be unexceptionable. 
 
 Nevertheless, the pilgrims were not, so far as I could learn, 
 drawn from the upper class of society, but seemed to be, for 
 the most part, middle-class people of comfortable means. For 
 instance, out of the two hundred who were staying at the same 
 hotel with myself, there were but one or two families who 
 were at all distingue. 
 
 However, that is a matter of little importance ; the great 
 fact before us is the vital power of Popery, which is able to 
 make large bodies of people, from different parts of the earth, 
 assemble to what they call the capital of Christendom, we the 
 capital of Antichrist, for the purpose of doing honour both to 
 it and to the Pope. 
 
 This is a grave matter, which demands consideration, and 
 somethins; more. 
 
XXIX. 
 
 BLEEDING KNEES. 
 
 IN the French Journal, Le Signal, of November 22nd, 1S79, 
 I observed a notice of certain penances performed by 
 women in Brittany. The penitents crawl on their knees many 
 times round the sacred places of pilgrimage ; and this act is 
 called •' mortification.'^ 
 
 The Irish often perform this kind of penance by proxy, 
 giving a few pence to a poor woman, who thereupon will go 
 thirty or forty times round the sanctuary on bare knees. Of 
 course this is not done without considerable suffering ; the 
 stones are reddened with the blood of the devotees ; and 
 frequently the recklessness produced by pain and exhaustion 
 makes them indifferent to the indecent exposure of their person. 
 Incapacity for their domestic duties, owing to the laceration 
 and swelling of the knees, necessarily follows. Thus bleeding 
 knees are to be seen around the holy wells, and at other places 
 in Ireland, just as they are in Brittany. 
 
 Something of the same kind is beginning to be common in 
 England, and for a kindred reason. Ladies, as a sort of 
 meritorious penance — so they are instructed — kneel, in church 
 or oratory, on the bare stones. The result is " the housemaid's 
 knee"; and a case of this kind has lately fallen under my 
 observation. 
 
 Now let us go back some eighteen hundred years, to the 
 times of Heathen Rome, and we shall find a similar penance 
 in fashion. Juvenal, in one of his Satires (vi. 522-6), speaks 
 
BLEEDING KNEES. 1 65 
 
 of a superstitious woman who is conscious of sin, and thus 
 describes her efforts to expiate it : — 
 
 " She will break the ice and go down into the river in the 
 depth of winter ; she will dip herself three times in the Tiber 
 at early dawn, and bathe her timid head in its very eddies ; 
 then, naked and shivering, she will go and crawl on bleeding 
 knees over the whole extent of the Campus Martius." 
 
 How common such penances were among the Pagan 
 Romans we may see in the following words of Tibullus 
 il. ii. 83) :— 
 
 " I would not hesitate, if I had done wrong, to prostrate 
 myself in the temples, and to give kisses to the consecrated 
 thresholds ; I would not refuse to crawl over the floor on my 
 knees, and to beat my wretched head against the holy door- 
 posts." 
 
 Bretons, Irish, English, and ancient Romans, are alike pos- 
 sessed of the universal idea of the natural man, that by his 
 sufferings he can atone for his sins. 
 
 Dion Cassius relates of Julius Caesar, that on one occasion 
 he ascended the steps of the Capitol on his knees in order to 
 avert an evil omen ; the same thing was done by Claudius. 
 Indeed, as Blunt remarks, "the practice of creeping upon the 
 knees seems to have been a superstition generally prevailing 
 among all classes, and is one among several expiatory rites." 
 
 On the steps of Ara Coeli, answering, in the present day, to 
 those which were pressed by the knees of Csesar and Claudius, 
 one may even now occasionally witness the same penance in 
 course of performance by modern devotees. But at a little 
 distance are some much more frequented steps ; I mean the 
 Scala Sancta, or Holy Stairs, where, from morn to eve, numbers 
 of persons may be seen laboriously toiling up the ascent in 
 the old Pagan fashion. 
 
 We began this chapter with an allusion to superstition in 
 Brittany ; it might be expected to linger there, since some 
 
l66 ROME: PAGAN AND PAPAL. 
 
 parts of the province are said to have been Heathen within 
 the last two centuries. Indeed, from the first introduction of 
 Christianity into that country, it would appear that Christ was 
 degraded to a level with the old gods, as in so many other 
 cases. The early missionaries made ineffectual efforts to over- 
 throw the Celtic worship, and at last, tired of failure, changed 
 their plans, and began to engraft their own faith upon the old 
 idolatry of stones and fountains. These measures were suc- 
 cessful ; but that which resulted was not Christianity. The 
 dolmen, or table-stone, was converted into a chapel ; the 
 menhir, or upright stone, into a pedestal for the crucifix — it 
 often serves this purpose even now ; the sanctity of the foun- 
 tains was preserved, and the gods were gradually changed into 
 Christian saints. Hence a strange jumble ! Those who call 
 themselves Christians are seen making pilgrimages to sacred 
 fountains, the holy water from which is poured over the 
 affected part of the diseased. And, in the depth of night, the 
 barren woman hastens to some solitary stone, as her Hindoo 
 sister does to the Hngam, hoping to become a mother by virtue 
 of her contact with it. See the article on Brittany in the 
 Handbook for France, which goes on to describe the too 
 obvious results of such a religion : — " The pilgrimage being 
 over, and indulgence for past sins obtained, the penitents are 
 no sooner shriven than they begin to run up a fresh score at 
 the riotous festivals which follow these assemblies." 
 
Roman Standard. 
 
 XXX. 
 
 Sr. GEORGE AND THE DRAGON. 
 
 A CURIOUS instance of the percolation of Heathenism 
 into Christianity is to be found in tracing out the myth 
 of St. George and the Dragon. The following is Gibbon's 
 account of the original of the hero :— 
 
 "George, from his parents or his education, surnamed the 
 Cappadocian, was born at Epiphania in Cilicia, in a fuller's 
 shop. From this obscure and servile origin he raised himself 
 by the talents of a parasite ; and the patrons, whom he 
 assiduously flattered, procured for their worthless dependent 
 a lucrative commission, or contract, to supply the army with 
 bacon. His employment was mean ; he rendered it infamous. 
 He accumulated wealth by the basest acts of fraud and cor- 
 ruption • but his malversations were so notorious that he was 
 compelled to escape from the pursuit of justice. After this 
 disgrace, in which he appears to have saved his fortune at 
 the expense of his honour, he embraced, with real or affected 
 zeal, the profession of Arianism. From the love, or the 
 ostentation, of learning, he collected a valuable library of 
 history, rhetoric, philosophy, and theology; and the choice of 
 the prevailing faction promoted George of Cappadocia to the 
 throne of Athanasius. The entrance of the new archbishop 
 was that of a barbarian conqueror ; and each moment of his 
 
1 68 ROME: PAGAN AND PAPAL. 
 
 reign was polluted by cruelty and avarice. The Catholics of 
 Alexandria and Egypt were abandoned to a tyrant qualified 
 by nature and education to exercise the office of persecutor ; 
 but he oppressed with an impartial hand the various inhabitants 
 of his extensive diocese. . . . The messenger who proclaimed 
 at Alexandria the accession of Julian, announced the downfall 
 of the archbishop. George, with two of his obsequious 
 ministers, Count Diodorus, and Dracontius, Master of the 
 Mint, were ignominiously dragged in chains to the public 
 prison. At the end of twenty-four days, the prison was forced 
 open by the rage of a superstitious multitude, impatient of 
 the tedious forms of judicial proceedings. The enemies of 
 gods and men expired under their cruel insults ; the lifeless 
 bodies of the archbishop and his associates were carried in 
 triumph through the streets on the back of a camel ; and the 
 inactivity of the Athanasian party was esteemed a shining 
 example of evangelical patience. The remains of these guilty 
 wretches Avere thrown into the sea; and the popular leaders 
 of the tumult declared their resolution to disappoint the 
 devotion of the Christians, and to intercept the future honours 
 of these martyrs, who had been punished, like their predeces- 
 sors, by the enemies of their religion. The/ears of the Pagans 
 w^ere just, and their precautions ineffectual. The meritorious 
 death of the archbishop obliterated the memory of his life. 
 The rival of Athanasius was dear and sacred to the Arians, 
 and the seeming conversion of those sectaries introduced his 
 worship into the bosom of the Catholic church. The odious 
 stranger, disguising every circumstance of time and place, 
 assumed the mask of a martyr, a saint, and a Christian hero ; 
 and the infamous George of Cappadocia has been transformed 
 into the renowned St. George of England, the patron of arms, 
 of chivalry, and of the garter." 
 
 St. George was thus turned into a military saint, but he 
 was unprovided with a suitable history. However, "the 
 
ST. GEORGE AND THE DRAGON. 1 69 
 
 deficiency," says Mr. Baring-Gould, "was soon supplied, just 
 as the story of Hippolytus, son of Theseus, torn to pieces by 
 horses, was deliberately transferred to a Christian of the same 
 name, St, Hippolytus." Here is the fable, which we may 
 compare with the history given above. 
 
 George was born in Cappadocia, and entered the army in 
 early youth. He was put to death in the Diocletian perse- 
 cution, enduring no less than seven martyrdoms, extending, 
 with unheard-of tortures, over seven years ; through which 
 he converted the Empress Alexandra and forty thousand 
 men ! 
 
 But Christians are not the only persons who venerate him, 
 and pray at his shrine. The Mussulmans also do so ; and 
 about the year 900, one of their number, Ibn Wakspiyu, trans- 
 lated an ancient Nabathsean volume into Arabic from the 
 Chaldee. In this book there is much about Thammuz or 
 Adonis, the Sun-god, and it is related of him how he was 
 tortured, often put to death, and as often rose again. 
 
 Now in the month which after him is called Thammuz, his 
 festival was held, and down to a.d. 900, at least, in Bagdad 
 and other places a great wailing was made for him, especially 
 — as in the days of Ezekiel, B.C. 594 — on the part of the 
 women. Owing to the remoteness of the time, no one, says 
 Ibn, knows exactly what his story was, nor why they lament 
 him. But he goes on to state, that what is said of Thammuz 
 is the same as that which is told by the Christians of the 
 blessed George. 
 
 "We have, then," remarks Mr. Baring-Gould, "the myth of 
 St. George identified with that of Thammuz." The worship 
 of St. George and its popularity in the East is mainly due to 
 his being a Christianized Thammuz, the Sun-god, who, with 
 the year, dies and lives again. 
 
 Thammuz, Adonis, Osiris, Baal, and St. George, were all 
 names under which the sun was worshipped. 
 
I/O ROME: PAGAN AND PAPAL. 
 
 In the legend of St. George, two ladies are prominent — a 
 widow with whom the youthful knight lodged, and an empress 
 in whose house he died, and who was herself martyred. So, 
 too, in the story of his prototype, Thammuz or Adonis, there 
 are two ladies, Venus and Proserpine. Both of them are 
 enamoured of him, and he divides the year between them, 
 spending half of it with Venus on the earth, and the other 
 half with Proserpine in the realms below. Mr. Baring-Gould 
 thus cleverly draws the parallel : — 
 
 " It is, I think, impossible not to see that St. George is a 
 Semitic god Christianized. A few little arrangements were 
 necessary to divest the story of its sensuous character, and to 
 purify it. Venus had to be got out of the way. She was 
 made into a pious widow. Then Proserpine had to be 
 accounted for. She was turned into a martyr. Alexandra the 
 Empress accompanies George into the unseen world. Conse- 
 quently, in the land of light he was with the widow, in that 
 of gloom with the Empress; just as Adonis divided his year 
 between Venus and Proserpine. 
 
 "As to the fable of the dragon, combat with these imaginary 
 monsters belongs to all mythologies, whether Pagan, Paynim, 
 or Church ; everywhere there are dragons and their slayers, 
 from Hercules and the Hydra, Apollo and the Python, down 
 to the many specimens which may be found to-day in the 
 fanes of China and Burmah." 
 
 St. George's encounter is said to have taken place on the 
 coast of Syria, near Beyrout, not far from the scene of Perseus' 
 famous exploit, the rescue of Andromeda, to which we shall 
 presently have to call attention. It is commemorated in the 
 following verses : — 
 
 "O Georgi, Martyr inclitc, 
 Te decet laus et gloria, 
 Per quern puella regia, 
 Existens in tristitia, 
 Salvata est." 
 
ST. GEORGE AND THE DRAGON. 17I 
 
 That is, 
 
 *' O famous martyr George, 
 Glory and praise to thee, 
 Who saved the royal maid 
 From dire calamity." 
 
 " Thus," says Mr. Baring-Gould, " sang the clerks from the 
 ' Sarum Hours of the Blessed Virgin,' on St. George's day, 
 till the time of Pope Clement VII. (d. 1534), when the story 
 of the dragon was cut out." And well it might be ; for the 
 light of the Reformation had begun to shine, and was revealing 
 its Heathen features. 
 
 The story of the encounter is as follows : — A lake near a 
 town was infested by a monster, who had many times driven 
 back an armed host, and who was wont to approach the walls 
 of the city, poisoning by his exhalations all who came near 
 him. At first sheep were thrown out to him as food, and, 
 when they failed, men. And so at length the lot fell upon 
 the king's daughter to be devoured ; but as she was sadly 
 awaiting her doom, St. George happily appeared, and, making 
 the sign of the cross, brandished his lance, and forthwith 
 assailed the dragon. There was a terrific struggle ; but at last 
 the monster w'as so thoroughly subdued that the saint bade 
 the maiden pass her girdle round him, and lead him along. 
 He followed her in the gentlest manner, and in this way was 
 brought into the city, where his appearance produced the 
 greatest excitement, and the Pagans fled in all directions. 
 St. George, however, recalled them, and then appeased their 
 fears by cutting off the dragon's head. 
 
 Of course the end of the story ought to have been that the 
 maiden and her deliverer fell in love with each other, were 
 married, and lived happily ever afterwards. But such a moral 
 would not have suited the interests of the priesthood, and, 
 consequently, the result is of a very different kind. The king 
 and his people, twenty thousand men, besides women and 
 
172 ROME: PAGAN AND PAPAL. 
 
 children, are baptized ; baptism being the great missionary 
 aim of a Paganized Christianity. 
 
 Among Heathen myths similar to this Church fable, that of 
 Andromeda is, perhaps, most exact in its parallelism. The 
 lady, of course a great beauty, was the daughter of Cepheus, 
 King of ^■Ethiopia. Her mother, Cassiope, by vaunting her 
 own beauty against that of Juno, had grievously offended that 
 goddess. To punish her, an aquatic monster was sent to 
 ravage the territories of Cepheus ; and the oracle declared 
 that nothing could stay the calamity unless the daughter of 
 Cassiope were exposed to his fury. Accordingly Andromeda was 
 chained to a rock at Jaffa, and left to her fate. But happily she 
 had her St, George in the person of Perseus, who, on his return 
 from the slaughter of Medusa, happened to pass that way just 
 in time to rescue the doomed maiden from the jaws of death. 
 But from this point the Heathen myth, following the course of 
 nature, is far more picturesque and pleasing than its ecclesias- 
 tical imitation. The damsel and her deliverer are smitten with 
 a mutual love, marry, and have a numerous and lovely offspring. 
 
 Thus the Pagan story, at any rate, leaves a pleasing impres- 
 sion ; while the termination of the Church legend disappoints. 
 The simple reason of the difference is that the latter is tortured 
 into a form consistent with the ideas of a celibate priesthood, 
 whereas the former closes in obedience to the sweet and hal- 
 lowed law of natural affection. Enforced celibacy is a far worse 
 enemy to our common humanity than either of the monsters 
 slain by the two famous knights could possibly have been. 
 
 We have already alluded to the fact that the localities of 
 both adventures are in Syria. At the beginning of the Chris- 
 tian era, the chains which bound Andromeda to the rock of 
 Jaffa were exhibited to the credulous. And now, as the 
 traveller crosses a stream a little to the north of Beyrout, his 
 attention is directed to the scene of the conflict between 
 St. George and the Dragon. 
 
XXXI. 
 
 POPE yOAK. 
 
 THE story of the Dark Ages to which the title of this 
 chapter refers, whether it be a true history or a fable, 
 is so famous, and at the same time so characteristic of the 
 period to which it is assigned, that it seems worth a few words. 
 
 A vivid reminiscence of my childhood, in the early years of 
 this century, is a certain circular toy of Tunbridge ware which 
 formed the centre of the round game of Pope Joan. After 
 losing that association, I cannot remember to have heard the 
 name of the Papessa for more than fifty years, and always 
 regarded her as a fabulous personage. But at the end of that 
 time, in 1878, happening to be in Siena, where the interior 
 of the cathedral displays portraits of the Popes down to 
 Alexander III., and having been told that the effigy of Pope 
 Joan was once among them, I questioned the sacristan. 
 
 "Come here, sir," said he, politely, "and I will show you 
 where she used to be." 
 
 So he took me with him to the great western door, and, 
 after opening it to give light, pointed to a portrait on the 
 north wall, near the west corner, and said, " There, sir, that 
 was her place." 
 
 But if she were a fabulous person, how could she have found 
 her way into that grand cathedral, and taken her place in the 
 company of the Popes ? By what means was the necessary 
 sanction of the Bishop of the diocese, the Canons, and the other 
 authorities of the church, obtained ? I carried my difficulty 
 to two friends who were learned in such matters. The first 
 
174 ROME: PAGAN AND PAPAL. 
 
 told me that for five-and-twenty years he had felt convinced 
 that her story was a fact ; the other observed, " There is every 
 reason to believe it." 
 
 These answers disposed me to study the subject, which I 
 did, though I can by no means claim to have waded through 
 the whole vast mass of literature connected with it. 
 
 The story is as follows : — Joan was of English origin ; she 
 was beautiful, talented, and learned ; but incontinent, an 
 intriguer, and false. 
 
 While yet a girl she disguised herself as a male, and entered 
 a monastery in order to join a monk for whom she had con- 
 ceived a passion. Subsequently the lovers fled, and, after 
 wandering hither and- thither for some time, repaired to Athens 
 with the view of perfecting themselves in Greek studies. 
 There the monk died ; and Joan, broken-hearted, but still 
 disguised, went to Rome and opened a school. It was not 
 long before she had the satisfaction of seeing her lecture-room 
 crowded with literary and distinguished men, and of knowing 
 that the city was filled with the fame of her extraordinary 
 learning and ability, and with her reputation for piety. She 
 rose higher and higher in public estimation, until at last, upon 
 the death of Leo IV. (a.d. 855), she was elected Pope, and 
 "reigned prudently during two years, five months, and four 
 days." At the end of that time, when passing in a public 
 procession near the Colosseum, — between it and the famous 
 Church of St. Clemente, — she was seized with the pains of 
 labour, fell to the ground, and died. 
 
 So runs the tale. Baring-Gould, in his amusing Myths of 
 the Middle Ages, thus disposes of it : — " It need hardly be 
 stated that the whole story of Pope Joan is fabulous, and rests 
 on not the slightest historical foundation. ... A paper war 
 was waged upon the subject, and finally the whole story was 
 proved conclusively to be utterly destitute of historical truth." 
 
 Such strong language from a clerical author, to whom the 
 
POPE JOAN. 175 
 
 present Premier, Mr. Gladstone, has granted a literary pension, 
 ought to carry weight. But, though I would not contradict 
 it absolutely, I am, at the same time, prepared to maintain that 
 no one who has carefully and impartially sifted the evidence 
 could be justified in making so unqualified an assertion as 
 that which ha-s just been quoted. 
 
 But our author makes another, which may be positively 
 denied. It is, that " the great champions of the myth were 
 the Protestants of the sixteenth century ; " of whom we are 
 then told that " they were thoroughly unscrupulous in dis- 
 torting history and in suppressing facts." 
 
 The " myth " was, however, as we shall presently show, 
 established and recognized by Roman Catholics centuries 
 before the Reformation. And Mr, Baring-Gould's characteri- 
 zation of the Protestants is a shameful calumny, at which, 
 however, we cannot profess surprise when we read his lauda- 
 tion of their persecutors, and find him describing the Papal 
 system as " a Church where every sanctuary is adorned with 
 all that can draw the heart to the Crucified, and raise the 
 thoughts to the imposing ritual of heaven." 
 
 Why has not this writer, and why have not many others of 
 the same class, honestly joined themselves to the Church 
 which they delight to honour? Why have they remained in 
 a communion which owes its constitution and its articles of 
 faith to that Reformation which they are ever eager to vilify, 
 and which Mr. Baring-Gould is said to have described as "a 
 miserable apostacy " ? 
 
 " The whole story was proved conclusively to be utterly 
 destitute of historical truth." 
 
 Let us see how this statement bears the test of investigation. 
 But before we adduce direct evidence, it would be well to 
 inquire whether Rome was at the time so holy and so pure 
 that such an episode would have been impossible, or, at least, 
 in a high degree improbable. 
 
176 ROME: PAGAN AND PAPAL. 
 
 The date assigned to Pope Joan is a.d. 855, and Marriott, 
 in writing of that and the two following centuries, calls them 
 " a period of darkness, both intellectual and moral (especially 
 so at Rome itself), such as the Christian world has never 
 known either before or since " ( Vestiariu/n Christianum, 
 LXXXIII). In support of this statement he quotes the 
 testimony of the great Roman annalist, Cardinal Baronius, 
 who, in commenting upon a.d. 912, writes as follows : — 
 
 " What at that time was the condition of the Holy Roman 
 Church ! How superlatively foul, when harlots, most powerful 
 as they were most disgraceful, were ruling at Rome, at whose 
 will sees were changed and bishops appointed, while — horrible 
 and shocking to tell ! — false Pontiffs, their lovers, were from 
 time to time thrust into the Chair of Peter ! Such men are 
 entered in the lists of Popes only to record the lapse of time ; 
 for who could affirm that those were legitimate Roman 
 Pontiffs who were lawlessly thrust into their office by 
 whores ? " 
 
 These are strong words, but they were not written by 
 Protestants of the sixteenth century. Is it impossible that 
 among the false Pontiffs Joan might have been thrust into 
 the chair of Peter by some of her lovers. Cardinals who were 
 quite aware of her sex ? 
 
 " For a contemporary picture," says Marriott, " of what 
 Rome then was, — a picture which more than justifies such 
 language as the above — see the Sixth Book of the Historia 
 Luitprandi Episcopi. He also adds that " Genebrardus, Arch- 
 bishop of Aix [Chronographice, lib. iv., p. 553), speaks of this 
 l)eriod of awful corruption, in the Papal See itself, as lasting 
 for one hundred and fifty years, and through a succession of 
 fifty Pontiffs." 
 
 With such testimony before us, we may surely dismiss the 
 question of impossibility, and boldly affirm that no antecedent 
 improbability can be alleged against the story of Joan. 
 
POPE JOAN. 177 
 
 For direct evidence to its credibility we shall rely upon 
 these three facts : — 
 
 I. A medallion of Joan, set in its proper order among the 
 portraits of the Popes, existed for some two and a half 
 centuries in the Cathedral of Siena. 
 
 II. A statue was erected to her at Rome, on the spot where 
 she is said to have died, and it remained in its place until 
 the times of the Reformation. 
 
 III. Her reign is recorded, and her portrait given, with those 
 of the other Popes, in the Nuremberg Chronicle (a.d. 1493). 
 
 (i) In regard to the medallion at Siena, I have already 
 mentioned my own experience. Murray's Guide contains the 
 following notice : — " Pope Zacharias was originally the bust 
 of Pope Joan. It had the inscription, 'Johannes VIII, 
 Femina de Anglia ' (that is, 'John VIIL, an English woman '). 
 In 1600, it was metamorphosed by the Grand Duke, at the 
 suggestion of Clement VIII. and Cardinal Tarugi." 
 
 There can be little doubt as to the truth of this statement, 
 in proof of which we will adduce the testimony of the Jesuit 
 Bower (b. 1686, d. 1766), who was Public Professor of 
 Rhetoric, History, and Philosophy, in the Universities of Rome, 
 Fermo, and Macerata, and also Counsellor of the Inquisition 
 in the latter place. From his Lives of the Popes, London, 
 i759> ■^ve gather the following information respecting the 
 medallion : — 
 
 That it was in its place at Siena in the time of Baronius 
 (b. 1538, d. 1607). 
 
 That it was fixed between Leo IV. and Benedict III., and 
 bore the inscription, "John VIIL, an English woman." 
 
 That, at the request of the Cardinal Archbishop of the city, 
 Tarugi, the features were altered in 1600. 
 
 And that some time previous to 1677, since every one knew 
 that it had once represented the female Pope, it was broken 
 or removed, in order that her very memory might be abolished. 
 
 12 
 
I/S ROME: PAGAN AND PAPAL. 
 
 The destruction of the figure took place in the Pontificate 
 of Alexander VII, (1655-67), who, being himself a Sienese, 
 was, perhaps, jealous for the reputation of his native town, 
 and, therefore, finally removed the scandal from it. 
 
 After its disappearance in 1677, the learned Franciscan 
 and Provincial of his order, Antonius Pagi, passed through 
 Siena, and some curious particulars of his visit are given by 
 Bower : — 
 
 " How great care was taken at Siena to abolish all remem- 
 brance of Pope Joan, as well as of the statue with which she 
 was honoured in the stately cathedral of that city, will appear 
 from what happened to the very learned Father, Antonius 
 Pagi, as related by himself 
 
 "Since Pagi, when passing through Siena in 1677, was very 
 desirous of being informed upon the spot of every particular 
 relating to the famous statue of the she-Pope in that cathedral, 
 he applied for information to the religious of his own order. 
 But, to his great surprise, they all pretended never to have heard 
 of such a statue. Thereupon Pagi, finding that they declined 
 — he knew not why — to enter upon the subject, repaired to 
 the cathedral, and, addressing most of the prebendaries as 
 they came out of the choir, told them that he wished to see 
 the statue of Pope Joan, and begged that they would show 
 it to him, since it might afford him some new light to confute 
 the fable, and confound the heretics. But they all walked 
 off, without so much as deigning to give him an answer. 
 
 " When they had gone, a man advanced in years accosted 
 him, introduced himself as one who had long been attached 
 to the cathedral, and said that since his inquiries were not 
 ])rompted by idle curiosity, but by a desire for the good of 
 the Church, he would furnish him with such information as 
 might be thought necessary for so worthy a purpose, on 
 condition that he undertook never to disclose the source 
 from whence he obtained it. With this condition Pagi 
 
POPE JOAN. 179 
 
 readily complied ; and thereupon the old man answered all 
 his questions, showed him the place where the statue had 
 stood, and told him how it had first been changed into that 
 of Zachary, and at what time it had been altogether removed, 
 namely, in the Pontificate of Alexander VII., a native of 
 Siena. 
 
 " Here I cannot help observing," continues Bower, *' that 
 the promise of secrecy insisted on by the old man, the clownish 
 behaviour of the dignitaries of the Church in one of the most 
 polite cities of Italy, and the shyness of the friars, averse to 
 enter upon the topic of the female Pope even with a very 
 learned man of their own order, who, they knew, would make 
 a good use of their information, plainly show that an order 
 had been issued by the Inquisition commanding all the in- 
 habitants of Siena to observe a strict silence with respect to 
 Pope Joan and her statue." 
 
 In 1699, Montfaucon, the learned French Benedictine 
 monk, after an antiquarian tour in Italy, in the course of 
 which he was received by the Pope with great distinction, 
 returned home through Siena, and subsequently wrote as 
 follows in his Antiquities of Italy. 
 
 " On a cornice in a row (in the cathedral) are the images 
 of a hundred and seventy Popes, from the shoulders upwards, 
 all in clay. The first is St. Peter {the first now is Christ), 
 the last, Adrian IV. Order is not observed ; for some are 
 double, the Anti-Popes being inserted, and the true omitted. 
 
 " Pope Joan was formerly there ; but, at the request of 
 Clement VIII., the then Duke of Tuscany changed the name 
 of Joan into Zachary. 
 
 " These heads of Popes were made and placed there a.d. 
 1400." 
 
 The reader will observe that this learned antiquary and 
 very decided Papist does not speak, as is now the custom, 
 of the story or fable of Joan, but mentions her as he would 
 
l80 ROME: PAGAN AND PAPAL. 
 
 any other Pope — " Pope Joan was formerly there." This is 
 not, of course, conclusive as to his opinion, and I have not 
 studied his numerous folios sufificiently to know whether he 
 has elsewhere expressed himself upon the subject. But his 
 mode of speaking in the passage just quoted favours the idea 
 that he believed in the existence of the female Pope, as he 
 certainly did in that of her statue. 
 
 So much, then, for the medallion, which was unquestionably 
 permitted to remain in the cathedral at Siena for some two 
 centuries in its original condition as Pope Joan, and in its 
 altered form as Pope Zachary for half a century longer. The 
 fact that it was placed in such a position in a.d. 1400 certainly 
 indicates a general belief, on the part of the ecclesiastics of the 
 time, in the historical reality of the person represented, and 
 an utter indifference to the scandal of her story. We now 
 pass on to our second point, the statue in the street of 
 Rome. 
 
 (2) In the King's Library at Paris there is a manuscript of 
 John Burcardt, Bishop of Horta, who was " Master of Cere- 
 monies of the Pope's Chapel " during the reign of five Pontiffs, 
 from 1483 to 1506. Entirely and deservedly trusted by his 
 employers, of whom he was a close observer, and with whose 
 private life he had abundant opportunity of becoming ac- 
 quainted, he was accustomed to amuse himself by writing a 
 daily Journal of the proceedings of the Papal Court. Soon 
 after the year 1785 an account of his manuscript, with extracts, 
 was prepared by a Committee of French Academicians, and 
 published by order of the King. In 1789 it was translated and 
 published in England (London, R. Faulder), and from that 
 edition I take the subjoined passage, dated Dec. 27th, 1487 :— 
 
 " The Pope, returning in state on horseback, passed through 
 the street in which the figure of Pope Joan is placed in memory 
 of her lying-in. Now it is pretended that the Popes, in their 
 cavalcades, ought never to pass through that street. The 
 
POPE JOAN. l8l 
 
 Pope was, therefore, blamed by the Archbishop of Florence 
 and some other prelates for having gone that way." 
 
 But this feeling was not universal among the dignitaries ; for 
 Burcardt relates that he talked about the matter to one bishop 
 who said " that it was nonsense, and that the very mention of 
 it savoured of heresy." 
 
 M. Brequigny, the academician who translates and comments 
 on the extracts from Burcardt, remarks on the passage just 
 quoted: — "The year [1487] produces a fact which appears 
 to me worthy to be selected," that is, from the general matter 
 of the Journal. And presently he gives his reason for the 
 preference : — " It seems by this that at Rome there was at 
 the time a general belief in the story of Pope Joan." 
 
 So late, then, as the end of a.d. 1487 the statue of the 
 Papessa was to be seen in a street of Rome. And it appears 
 to have remained there for many subsequent years ; for when, 
 about A.D. 15 1 1, Luther visited the Imperial City, this scan- 
 dalous exhibition was one of the many things which horrified 
 him. 
 
 " Another day, passing down a wide street leading to 
 St. Peter's, he halted in astonishment before a stone statue, 
 representing a pope, under the figure of a woman, holding a 
 sceptre, clothed in the papal mantle, and carrying a child in 
 her arms. It was a young woman of Mentz, he was told, whom 
 the cardinals elected Pope, and who was delivered of a child 
 opposite this place. No Pope, therefore, passes along that 
 street. ' I am surprised,' says Luther, * that the Popes allow 
 such a statue to remain ' " ( D'Aubigne's History of the Refor- 
 mat mi, vol. i., p. 195). 
 
 Even Bower — whom we have already quoted, and who, like 
 other post-Reformation Papists, endeavours to cast contempt 
 on the story of Joan — makes this admission : — " We cannot 
 doubt that a statue was to be seen in the place where Joan is 
 supposed to have been delivered of a son." 
 
l82 
 
 ROME: PAGAN AND PAPAL. 
 
 He also mentions Theodore of Neim, who was secretary to 
 two Popes, and who tells us that the statue was standing when 
 he wTote, in a.d. 1413. "In his time," says Bower, "the 
 fable of the female Pope obtained universally. Not that we 
 can hence believe the story to be true, but only that it was 
 believed when the statue was erected, as it was believed when 
 the medallion was placed in the cathedral of Siena " (Vol. iv., 
 P- 257). 
 
 So general a credence may well have produced the old 
 monkish line — 
 
 " Papa Pater Patrum : peperit Papessa Papellum. ' 
 "Popes father Fathers : but the Papess Joan 
 Mothers a Pope — brings forth a little one." 
 
 (3). We have now to notice the evidence of the Nuremberg 
 Chronicle, a curious history of the world, brought down to 
 A.D. 1493, the date of its publication. It is written in much 
 
POPE JOAN. 183 
 
 abbreviated Latin, printed in black letter, and adorned with 
 woodcuts. Besides numerous pictures of kings, legislators, poets, 
 philosophers, and other celebrated persons, sacred and profane, 
 it also contains portraits of the Popes and Emperors, the 
 former beginning with Linus and ending with Alexander VL, 
 who assumed the tiara about a year before its publication. A 
 great curiosity it is, but very troublesome to read on account 
 of its many abbreviations. 
 
 In this Chrotiicle Joan is found in her proper place among 
 the Popes ; her portrait is reproduced on the opposite page. 
 In it she wears a triple crown, just the same as that of her 
 brother Pontiffs ; but she does not carry a staff with a double 
 cross, as they do, since her hands are occupied with her child. 
 No objection is made to her, nor is there any particular notice. 
 About ten lines are devoted to her history, and she is described 
 in the index to the volume as " Johannes Papa Septimus Ang- 
 licus mulier fuit in habitu virili." That is, " Pope John VII., 
 of English extraction, was a woman in male disguise.'' 
 
 The Chrotiicle states that her Pontificate lasted two years, 
 five months, and four days. And it further records, that, after 
 her death, two things were observed with regard to the Popes. 
 The first, that they never proceeded to the Lateran by the 
 way of the street in which she died ; the second, that from 
 that date means were taken, at his election, to substantiate the 
 sex of a new Pope. 
 
 The last clause alludes to the sedes stercoraria on which 
 formerly the Popes were made to sit at their installation. 
 From Burcardt's Journal we learn that this custom was practised 
 as late at least as the coronation of JuHus II., a.d. 1503, 
 
 Bower admits it as strong historic evidence of the general 
 early belief in a Papess. It would seem that it must have 
 originated in something of the kind, although a silly attempt 
 has been made to explain it from Psalm cxiii. 7, a verse which 
 was probably used to hide its real significance. 
 
184 ROME: PAGAN AND PAPAL. 
 
 As to the conjectures mentioned by Bower to explain away 
 the episode of Joan, they are as disgraceful to the Holy See as 
 the story itself. " Aventinus," says he, " will have it that the 
 fable originated in Pope John I., who was raised to the See by 
 Theodora, an imperious courtesan. And Pauvinius is of 
 opinion that Joan Rainiere, another famous courtesan, who with 
 uncontrolled power governed both John XII. and the State, 
 was in raillery called the she-Pope." 
 
 A comparatively recent Roman Catholic historian of the 
 Popes, the Spaniard Lorente, who wrote in 1822, is, I observe, 
 quoted as accepting Joan, and placing her in the Papal suc- 
 cession of the year 855. 
 
 It will be noticed that we have supported all our arguments 
 by Roman Catholic authorities. The Protestants of the six- 
 teenth century did undoubtedly press their opponents with 
 this as well as with other scandals of the Papacy, but they were 
 by no means " the great champions of the myth " ; and a more 
 decided refutation of Mr. Baring-Gould's baseless charge could 
 not be found than the Words of the Jesuit Bower, who thus 
 expresses himself in regard to Joan : — 
 
 "She owes her existence and promotion to the Roman 
 Catholics themselves. By them the fable was invented ; it was 
 published by their priests and monks before the Reformation, 
 and was credited upon their authority even by those who were 
 most attached to the Holy See, St. Antoninus, Archbishop of 
 Florence, being among them. Nor did they begin to confute it till 
 the Protestants reproached them with it. yi-Ineas Silvius (Pius II., 
 died A.D. 1464) was the first to question the fact by saying 
 that ' the story was not certain ' " (p. 259). It will be noticed 
 that the character of this negation is sufliciently qualified. 
 
 Thus even Bower, anxious as he was to get rid of the story, 
 establishes several points in favour of its authenticity, and finds 
 himself compelled to admit its possibility. And he speaks in 
 just the same strain as other authors respecting the morals of 
 
POPE JOAN. 185 
 
 the time, affirming that Rome " was profaned by the bullies, 
 lovers, and bastards, of public prostitutes, who governed the 
 city with absolute sway, and raised their favourites to the See 
 of St. Peter "(p. 251). 
 
 The main points, then, which we have been enabled to extract 
 from the testimony we have adduced are as follows : — 
 
 That Protestants neither invented nor popularized the story 
 of Joan. 
 
 That if it were an invention, "it was invented and published 
 by priests and monks before the Reformation, and credited 
 upon their authority even by those most attached to the Holy 
 See." 
 
 That the immorality of the Papal court at that time, and 
 subsequently, made any iniquity possible at Rome. 
 
 That for some centuries the episode of a Papess seems to 
 have been generally accepted as a historical fact in the Roman 
 Catholic world. 
 
 That the Papists did not begin to confute the story until the 
 Protestants reproached them with it. 
 
 That the name and portrait of Joan appear with those of 
 other Popes in the Nuremberg Chro?iicle, a Roman Catho»lic 
 work published before the Reformation, in a.d. 1493. 
 
 That a statue in commemoration of herself and her sad end 
 was erected by her co-religionists on the spot where she died, 
 and remained there for centuries. 
 
 That her medallion, duly inscribed with the words " Joannes 
 VIII. , Femina de Anglia," was placed in the Cathedral of Siena, 
 and up to the year a.d. 1600 was to be seen there among the 
 effigies of preceding and subsequent Popes. 
 
 In regard to the last two points I would ask, When in the 
 capital of a country, and with the sanction of the authorities of 
 that capital, a statue is known to have been erected in a public 
 place, in commemoration of an event said to have happened 
 on that spot to the ruler of the country ; and when, in one of 
 
1 86 ROME: PAGAN AND PAPAL. 
 
 the most notable and splendid buildings of that country, the 
 bust of the same ruler has also been seen, associated, in a 
 complete collection, with portraits of the other rulers of the 
 ^and — -with such evidence before us, are we justified in affirming 
 that both the event and the ruler so commemorated are fables 
 " utterly destitute of historic truth " ? 
 
 I think not ; and must confess my own conviction that Joan 
 is a historical person, and her story in the main a fact. This 
 was the general belief for centuries, during those times of 
 corruption when immorality was a very venial sin, and such a 
 history brought no blush to the cheek. But the Reformation 
 dawned, and the Word of God began to teach men to discern 
 between light and darkness, between right and wrong : the 
 Spirit convinced even the world of sin. A certain sense of 
 shame and concealment, which in the case of the wicked is 
 ever the companion of shame, ensued, and men strove to deny 
 a fact of which they were no longer disposed to speak either 
 with bravado or indifference. Hence the change in Roman 
 Catholic writers in regard to this subject : they were no longer 
 acquiescent or apathetic, but were stimulated by an intense 
 anxiety to discredit so shameful a story — an anxiety sometimes 
 leading to extravagance like that of the Bollandist Du Sollier, 
 who talks of " fabella sexcenties jam exsufflata, convulsa, et 
 obtrita." At the same time the whole tone of society was 
 raised by the dissemination of the Holy Scriptures, a more 
 healthful public opinion began to spread through Europe, and 
 those who wished to obliterate the memory of Joan were 
 helped by the fact that men now found it difficult to conceive 
 of such a state of things as would render the intrusion of a 
 female Pope possible. And so the story was speedily conveyed 
 from the realm of fact into the dreamland of fable. 
 
Eoman Augur with Crozier. 
 
 XXXII. 
 
 THE ELECTION OF A POPE. 
 
 THE subject of the previous chapter brought before us the 
 terrible corruption of the Papacy ; we will now inquire 
 into the process by which a new Pontiff becomes possessed of 
 the chair of St. Peter. 
 
 In 1878 the whole Roman world was thrown into a state 
 of excitement by the death of Pio Nono, and the consequent 
 necessity of electing a new Pope. 
 
 But Rome was, from time to time, subject to similar excite- 
 ments two thousand years ago ; for in Heathen ages there was 
 a Pontiff at the head of the world's religion just as there is 
 now. Nay, in those ancient times he was even called by the 
 same name as his modern successor. Julius Caesar, as well 
 as Leo XIII., had the title of Pontifex Maximus, or Sovereign 
 Pontiff. AVhen Pagan Rome assumed her Papal disguise, it 
 was usual — as we have already seen — to change Heathen into 
 Christian terms, though the usages continued to be the same ; 
 but in this case the name remained as well as the office. 
 
 "The ancient Romans," says Du Choul, "had many orders 
 and colleges of priests, such as the greater and lesser Pontiffs, 
 
1 88 ROME: PAGAN AND PAPAL. 
 
 Flamens and Arch-flamens, Augurs, Salii, and their colleges 
 and presbyteries, like our Canons." They had also "their 
 method of consecrating their Pontiff and other ecclesiastical 
 dignitaries, just in the same manner that we consecrate our 
 Pope, cardinals, bishops, archbishops, and others." "When 
 the Pontifex IMaximus died, the other priests — petits Foniifices — 
 chose his successor, just as our Pontiff is at this day elected 
 by the Cardinals. To the Pontiff were submitted all things 
 sacred. His duty was to take charge of reUgion and of cere- 
 monies, and, above all, to take heed that no strange customs 
 prejudicial to the ceremonies of religion and of their gods were 
 introduced." 
 
 Thus, then, according to the testimony of Roman Catholics 
 themselves, the Heathen PontifT was, like his successor the 
 Pope, elected by a college and a sort of conclave of Cardinals ; 
 and with the selfsame object, that he might take care of 
 ceremonies and of the gods, and keep out strange customs, 
 or, in other words, extirpate heresy. 
 
 How energetically the Papal Pontiffs have taken care of the 
 gods, and kept out " heresy " by treachery, faggot, fire, and 
 sword, is too well known. If the Heathen Pontiffs persecuted 
 the Christians fiercely, their successors have persecuted them 
 fiercely and perseveringly, even up to our own times. 
 
 The proper number of the Cardinals who elect the Pope is 
 seventy. In 1878 there were sixty-two, of whom thirty-six 
 were Italians ; four years earlier there were but forty five. 
 The necessary majority for the election of a Pope is two-thirds 
 of the whole body ; and the manner of procedure is to vote 
 by ballot twice in the day, until the majority has been secured. 
 The names of the candidates are written on slips of paper, 
 which are then placed in a vessel in the Sistine Chapel. If 
 an inspection proves the result to be indecisive, the papers 
 are burnt, and the smoke issuing from them signifies to the 
 expectant crowd that the election is not yet made. 
 
THE ELECTION OF A POPE. 1 89 
 
 "After each failure," says the Daily Telegraph, "the Con- 
 clave is the scene of the usual by-play of a contested election. 
 Cardinals visit one another in their cells, and parties are dis- 
 solved and reformed for the next scrutiny. In this manner 
 the fortunes of the various parties change twice a day. . . . 
 Like an English jury, the Cardinals who elect are supposed 
 to be entirely secluded from the world, though it is certain 
 that in mediaeval and later times they received communications 
 which were intended to affect their choice. Unlike an English 
 jury, however, they were not starved." 
 
 Before proceeding to the election the Cardinals have to 
 take the following oath : — " I call Christ the Lord, Who is 
 to judge me, to witness that I elect him whom I believe God 
 would wish to be elected." Terrible words, when we call to 
 mind the elections which such jurors have sometimes made ! 
 
 "Ordinarily," continues the Telegraph, "only old men used 
 to be elected to the Papal chair. In 1846, the favourite 
 candidates in opposition to the late Pope were all more than 
 sixty-seven, while he himself — Pio Nono — the youngest of the 
 Cardinals, was only fifty-four. It followed that the Cardinals 
 would be great in proportion as their future master lacked 
 energy to make his will felt. Hence the brief reigns of Popes 
 as compared with those of other sovereigns. For example, 
 since the Conquest there have been only thirty-five sovereigns 
 of England, whilst during the same period there have been 
 over a hundred Popes. A darker reason is sometimes given. 
 Italy was a land of secret poisoning, and a troublesome ' Holy 
 Father ' was seldom known to live long." 
 
 " In an election, that which every member of ' the Sacred 
 College ' pursued was his own interest. It little mattered 
 whether they chose the best man or the worst. All they 
 cared for was to ensure the election, either of him who could 
 lead them inost ably the way they wished to go, or of him who 
 would most passively follow the lead of the bom rulers among 
 
IQO ROME: PAGAN- AND PAPAL. 
 
 them. Next to a stern Hildebrand or a dommeering Sixtus V., 
 what best answered their purpose was a profligate Julius III. 
 or a tipsy Gregory XVI. Often in the perplexity of counsels 
 the election was virtually adjourned — hamely, they chose what 
 they called a dead Pope, ''Papa de tomba,' some decrepit 
 valetudinarian— a mere stop-gap. . . . Everything is keenly 
 contested, and in order to keep out one whom some or many 
 have cause to dread, mediocrity and insignificance become 
 the pathway of success " {Times, Feb. 9th, 1878). 
 
 The same writer observes that " the Cardinals, in choosing 
 a Pope, had to please first themselves, then the Roman people, 
 then the Italian Princes, finally the European Monarchs. It 
 was now the genius of a man, now the tact of a diplomatist, 
 now the gold of a prince, now the will of a monarch, which 
 preponderated; not unfrequendy the craft of a mere subor- 
 dinate agent. 
 
 " For hardly of less consequence than the Cardinal Nephews, 
 Cardinal Protectors, Cardinal Princes, were often the ' Con- 
 clavists ' — private secretaries, za/ets, sick-iwrses ; many of the 
 Conscript Fathers are old, and need nursing — and others acting 
 as scouts, spies, and messengers of the locked-up Cardinals, and 
 in many instances, by a timely warning, or a lucky stratagem, 
 forwarding or frustrating the combination of their employers, 
 and determining the chances of a contested election." 
 
 After alluding to the intrigues and corruptions which have 
 so often signalized transactions said to proceed by Divine 
 inspiration, the writer (quotes the following from Cartwright's 
 Constitution of Papal Conclaves : — " Conclaves are filled with 
 manoeuvres practised by plotting Cardinals who have the 
 visible impress of that cautious and cunning temperament 
 which never operates but under a mask, and never contem- 
 plates to work otherwise than by stratagem." 
 
 But language so strong is not confined to Englishmen. We 
 may gather testimony of the same kind from M. Petrucelli, in 
 
THE ELECTION OF A POPE. 
 
 191 
 
 his Histoire DiploDiatiqiie des Conclaves, 4 vols., 1S66. The 
 author states that he has read more than a hundred thousand 
 official despatches, most of them unedited., with the result that, 
 for the general character of Conclaves, he endorses the report 
 given to the King of Spain, in the sixteenth century, by Cardinal 
 Mendoza, who had been present at three consecutive Papal 
 elections, and had twice " a narrow escape " of becoming a 
 Pope. The following is an extract from this Report : — 
 
 " I must declare that a Papal election is a school of deceit 
 and malice rather than of religion. Princes at a distance do 
 not know the thousandth part of what a Conclave is. Were a 
 prince with his own eyes to behold the proceedings of a 
 Conclave, he could not fail to be convinced, were he a God- 
 fearing man, that it is to the Papacy — shamefully bought and 
 sold as it now-a-days is — that all the evils of Christendom 
 should be ascribed ! " 
 
 In proof that this sad condition of things still continues in 
 our own times, we may cite the testimony of the Ultramontane 
 Marquis de Costa, Ambassador of Sardinia in 1829, at the 
 election of Pius VIII. Writing to the Prime Minister of his 
 master. King Charles Felix, he says — 
 
 " Flatteries, deceptions, treacheries, pledges and promises 
 given and broken without a shadow of shame, all the ordinary 
 incidents occurring at every Conclave, did not certainly fail to 
 reproduce themselves in the present instance ; so that I heard 
 more than one pious, upright, and noble-hearted person declare 
 that it would be impossible for any man of character to take 
 an active part in a Conclave for more than once in his' lifetime, 
 unless he were compelled to do so by the strongest sense of 
 duty." 
 
 Chateaubriand, who was in Rome at the same time (1829), 
 speaks to the same effect ; and what we read in the works of 
 M. Petrucelli and of Mr. Cartvvright with respect to the 
 election of Pius IX., in 1846, is sufficient to satisfy us that the 
 
192 ROME: PAGAN AND PAPAL. 
 
 usual intrigues were as much at work on that as on any previous 
 occasion. 
 
 In the face of such iniquities, what can we say of the men 
 who would dare to utter the terrible oath quoted above? And 
 after their outspoken denunciations of the Conclave, could 
 either Cardinal Mendoza or the Sardinian Ambassador have 
 denied that it was ''a synagogue of Satan " ? 
 
Gods in the Air. 
 
 The upper cut, from a French original, represents the gods Apollo and Diana spread- 
 ing the pestilence in defence of their votaries ; the lower, from Raphael's great picture in 
 the Vatican, depicts the gods Peter and Paul also helping their people from the air. 
 
 13 
 
XXXIII. 
 
 ECCLESIASTICAL PAINTING— ITS SENSUOUSNESS AND 
 PAGAN CHARACTER. 
 
 IN his charming work, The Renaissance in Italy ^ Mr. Symonds 
 gives utterance to some weighty observations on the sen- 
 suousness of the Roman ecclesiastical system, some of which 
 we will now submit to our readers. 
 
 " Intent," says he, " upon absorbing all existent elements 
 of life and power, the Church conformed her system to the 
 Roman type, established her services in basilicas and in Pagan 
 temples, adopted portions of the antique ritual, and converted 
 local genii into saints. . . . The Christianity she formed and 
 propagated was different from that of the New Testament^ 
 inasmuch as it had taken up into itself a mass of mythological 
 anthropomorphic elements. Thus transmuted and mate- 
 rialized, Christianity offered a proper medium for artistic 
 activity" (p. 27). 
 
 " The spirit of Christianity and the spirit of figurative art are 
 opposed, not because such art is immoral, but because it 
 cannot free itself from sensuous associations. It is always 
 bringing us back to the dear life of earth, from which the faith 
 would sever us. It is always reminding us of the body, which 
 piety bids us to forget. Painters glorify that which saints and 
 ascetics have mortified "(p. 25). 
 
 " The old gods lent a portion of their charm even to Christian 
 mythology, and showered their bloom of beauty on saints who 
 died renouncing them. II Sodoma's St. Sebastian is but 
 Hyacinthus, or Hylas, transpierced with arrows ; so that pain 
 
ECCLESIASTICAL PAINTING. 1 95 
 
 and martyrdom add pathos to his poetry of youthfulness. 
 Leonardo's St. y^o/m the Baptist is a faun of the forest, ivy- 
 crowned and laughing. Roman martyrs and Olympian deities, 
 heroes of the Acta Sanctorum and heroes of Greek romance, 
 were aUke citizens of one city — the city of the beautiful and 
 the human. . . . How the high-wrought sensibilities of the 
 Christian were added to the clear and radiant fancies of the 
 Greek, and how the frank sensuousness of the Pagan gave body 
 and fulness to the floating wraiths of an ascetic faith, remains a 
 miracle. . . . There are not a {ew for whom the. mystery is 
 repellent, who shrink from it as from Hermaphroditus " (p. t,^). 
 
 Repellent, indeed ! For, as our author presently remarks, 
 " the thoughts which art employs must needs immerse themselves 
 in sensuousness." Certainly they must do so, since art deals 
 with the things that are seen ; but true Christianity is concerned 
 with the things which are not seen. And so the religion of 
 Rome, being sensuous, depends much upon art ; whereas the 
 religion of Christ, from its spiritual nature, is altogether inde- 
 pendent of it. Nay, art — I mean ecclesiastical art — is the 
 deadly foe of faith, since it leads men away from the unseen, 
 and from the Word of God, to the material and the sensual. 
 
 " Because," says Mr. Symonds, " painting sufficed for Mari- 
 olatry, and confirmed the cult of local saints ; because its 
 sensuousness was not at variance with a creed that had been 
 deeply sensualized, the painters were allowed to run their course 
 unchecked. . . In the pictures of Raphael, a new Catholicity, 
 a cosmopolitan orthodoxy of the beautiful, was manifested " 
 (pp. 32-36). 
 
 "The masterpieces of Titian and Correggio lead the soul 
 away from penitence, away from ivorship eiwi, to dwell on the 
 dehght of youthful faces, blooming colour, graceful movement, 
 delicate emotion. . . How can the worshipper endure the 
 contact of those splendid forms, in which ' the lust of the eye 
 and the pride of life,' professing to subserve devotion, remind 
 
196 ROME: PAGAN AND PAPAL. 
 
 him rudely of the goodliness of sensual existence ? The sub- 
 limity and elevation which art gives to carnal loveliness are in 
 themselves hostile to the spirit that holds no truce with the 
 flesh " (p. 26). 
 
 " A single illustration may be selected to prove how difificult 
 even the holiest-minded and most earnest painter found it to 
 effect the proper junction between plastic beauty and pious 
 feeling : — Fra Bartolomeo, the disciple of Savonarola the 
 Florentine Reformer, painted a St. Sebastian in the cloisters of 
 St. Marco, where it remained until the Dominican confessors 
 became aware, through the avowals of female penitents, that 
 this picture was a stumblingblock and a snare to souls. . . . No 
 other ideas but those of heroism, constancy, or faith, were meant ; 
 but the painter's art demanded that their expression should be 
 eminently beaufifid, and the beautiful body of the young man 
 distracted attention from his spiritual virtues to his physical 
 perfections. The picture was withdrawn" (p. 29). 
 
 Unfortunates, who under the pretence of religion are thus 
 tempted by Pagan ApoUos ; or, if they be of the other sex, 
 have set before them Venus the beautiful ! For what is a St. 
 Sebastian but an Apollo or a Perseus cast in the mould of 
 manly perfection, and leading its beholder far from the quiet 
 paths of spirituality? What is a recumbent Magdalene of 
 Correggio, or of Guido, but an Aphrodite with dishevelled 
 charms, dangerous to contemplate, and filling our excited 
 imagination with the splendour and sensuality of Hellenic 
 fable ? Such, even before the rise of Greek art, must have been 
 the effect of the giant imaged heroes of Egypt — those awful 
 forms ! Nor can we forget the solemn charge which Ezekiel 
 brings against tlie wicked and corrupt Aholibah : " For when 
 she saw men pourtrayed upon the wall, the images of the 
 Chaldeans pourtrayed with vermilion, girded with girdles upon 
 their loins, exceeding in dyed attire upon their heads, all of 
 them princes to look to, after the manner of the Babylonians of 
 
ECCLESIASTICAL PAINTING. 1 97 
 
 Chaldea, the land of their nativity : and as soon as she saw 
 them with her eyes, she doted upon them, and sent messengers 
 unto them into Chaldea" (Ezek. xxiii. 14-16). 
 
 All men naturally delight in the religion of the eye, and 
 therefore it is that Rome, who for her own ends would sway the 
 world — therefore it is that she abounds in imagery of every 
 kind to satisfy the cravings of the corrupt human heart. By 
 forms, whether of beauty or of hideousness, according to the 
 taste of the worshipper, she seduces multitudes, and by means 
 of their imagination holds them in thraldom. Nay, of such 
 importance does she consider this among her other arts, that, 
 to defend it, she sometimes mutilates the Word of God by 
 striking out from her catechisms the commandment which says, 
 " Thou shalt not make to thyself any graven images." 
 
 I have noticed a curious instance of this omission on the 
 noble bronze gates of the Madelaine in Paris. The subject 
 depicted upon them is the Ten Commandments, displayed in 
 acts of human obedience and disobedience to the laws of God. 
 For example, there are pictures in bronze of Cain's act of 
 murder, of the stoning of the Sabbath breaker, and of the 
 covetousness of Achan ; but there is no illustration of the Second 
 Commandment — that is suppressed. 1 could scarcely believe 
 the testimony of my own eyes when I detected this. 
 
XXXIV. 
 
 ECCLESIASTICAL SCULPTURE: ITS SEA'S UOUS.VESS AND 
 PAGAN CHARACTER. 
 
 IN the previous chapter we saw that art, though not 
 evil in itself, has been made so in its ecclesiastical ap- 
 phcation, and that painters, with the sanction of the clergy, 
 have done much to Paganize Christianity. We will now turn 
 from painting to sculpture. 
 
 The pulpit of the baptistery of Pisa, a full-sized cast of 
 which may be seen in the South Kensington Museum, is 
 well known. It is the work of the great mediaeval sculptor, 
 Niccola Pisano, and is thus criticised by Mr. Symonds : — 
 " Carved upon this pulpit, Madonna assumes the haughty 
 pose of Theseus's wife ; while the High Priest displays the 
 majesty of Bacchus leaning on the neck of Ampelus. Nor, 
 again, is the naked vigour of Hippolytus without its echo 
 in the figure of the young man — Hercules, or Fortitude — 
 upon a bracket of the same pulpit." 
 
 While I agree with the criticisms of our author in regard 
 to the wife of Theseus, she seems to me to be most fully 
 represented in the panel of the pulpit next to the door, on 
 the right. For there, yet more grandiose than elsewhere, 
 the gentle Mary is represented as the haughty Heathen 
 Queen, and made to assume the air and character of a proud 
 Grecian beauty. 
 
 "These sculptures of Pisano (c. a.d. 1265)," continues 
 Mr. Symonds, "are a symbol of what happened in the age 
 
ECCLESIASTICAL SCULPTURE. 199 
 
 of the revival of art. The old world and the new shook 
 hands. Christianity and Hellenism kissed each other. . . . 
 And yet they still remained antagonistic. . . . Monks lean- 
 ing from Pisano's pulpit preached the sinfulness of natural 
 pleasure to women whose eyes were fixed on the adolescent 
 beauty of an athlete. Not far off was the time when Filarete 
 should cast in bronze the legends of Ganymedes and of Leda 
 for the portals of St. Peter's ; when Raphael should mingle 
 a carnival of more than Pagan sensuality with Bible subjects 
 in Leo's Loggia ; and when Delia Porta should place the 
 naked figure of Giulia Bella — the mistress of the infamous 
 Alexander VL — as an allegory of Truth upon her brother's 
 tomb in the choir of St. Peter's. 
 
 " Filarete's gates, besides a multitude of living creatures, 
 represent the best known among Greek myths, such as the 
 Rape of Proserpine, Diana and Actaeon, Europa and the 
 Bull, and the Labours of Hercules. Such fables as ' the 
 Fox and the Stork,' ' the Fox and the Crow,' and old stories 
 like that of the Death of ^schylus, are also included in this 
 medley" (p. 108). 
 
 A medley indeed ! Such incongruous minglings are, however, 
 by no means confined to the gates of St. Peter's. I have 
 seen them in many other places ; as, for instance, at the 
 cathedral of Como, the fagade of which is adorned with 
 equestrian statues of the Plinies. Another example may 
 be found in the Certosa — that is, the Carthusian monastery 
 — of Pavia, between that town and Milan, a rich and beautiful, 
 but not very tasteful, building. On its fagade I observed 
 medallions of Alexander the Great, of the Roman Emperors, 
 and of I know not how many other Heathen celebrities. 
 But there are two delightful things at the Certosa — the 
 nightingales in May, which seem to be ever singing, and 
 the charming frescoes of Luini. 
 
 In 1874 I took a journey from Mentone to Perugia to 
 
20O ROME: PAGAN AND PAPAL. 
 
 see the famous frescoes with which Perugino, the master of 
 Raphael, adorned his native town about a.d. 1500. The 
 most celebrated are in the little Sala del Cambio, or Exchange, 
 and very delightful they are. But the strange grouping of 
 sacred with profane much surprised me. Moses and David, 
 Solomon and Isaiah, were matched with Numa and Leonidas, 
 with Socrates and Trajan. Also Neptune and Venus and 
 Apollo and the Sibyls were in the not very suitable neighbour- 
 hood of the Nativity and the Transfiguration. 
 
 But who were the Sibyls? They were mythical Heathen 
 prophetesses, very popular at Rome, and in later years 
 adopted into the Christian mythology ; for the priest must 
 appropriate everything that represents power. According to 
 mediaeval legends, they stand next in dignity to the prophets 
 of the Old Testament, with whom they are made to alternate 
 in Michael Angelo's celebrated work in the Sistine Chapel. 
 Five are there portrayed — the Sibyls, Persica, Erythrsea, 
 Delphica, Cama^a, and Libya ; while the prophets chosen 
 to be their companions are Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Joel, and 
 Isaiah, with Jonah and Zechariah, one at either end. In 
 the Church of Sa. Maria della Pace are four Sibyls, painted 
 by Raphael, also in the vicinity of prophets ; and in Sa. 
 Maria sopra Minerva there are four more. " As in the Greek 
 Church," writes Mrs. Jameson, "the sages of antiquity were 
 admitted into the ranks of the prophets, the Latin Church 
 acted in a similar way by the adoption of the Sibyls." She 
 adds : ** They are twelve in number ; and the Church of St. 
 Jaques at Dieppe has twelve niches reserved for the twelve 
 figures of these Pagan witnesses to Christianity." In calling 
 them witnesses to Christianity, she appears to refer to the 
 supposed Messianic prophecies found in the Sibylline writings, 
 but ought to have known that these are manifest interpola- 
 tions, " pious frauds " of the second century, perpetrated in 
 all probability by men who, like Jacob, did not deem the 
 
ECCLESIASTICAL SCULPTURE. 201 
 
 Lord capable of carrying out His own purposes without 
 the help of their miserable craft. 
 
 It would be easy to adduce many other instances of the 
 union of Scriptural and Heathen figures in Romish churches ; 
 we will, however, mention but one more, in the Church of 
 St. Augustine at Deauville near Havre. There, over the 
 altar, and in heroic size, appears the patron saint ; Vice 
 and Error are chained before him, and he is supported on 
 the right by Moses, Isaiah, Demosthenes, and Cicero, and 
 on the left by Paul, John, Socrates, and Cato. 
 
 But if such comminglings of clean and unclean were allowed 
 in churches, they must also have become common in private 
 dwellings ; and of this I noticed a strange illustration — though 
 not in sculpture — at the South Kensington Museum in the 
 summer of 1877. It was an elegant object of art — seventeenth 
 century — styled " A domestic altar," and came from northern 
 Italy. It was small, apparently of metal, gilt, exquisite in 
 shape, and highly ornamented. The centre was a painting on 
 agate, the most prominent of two domestic scenes for this 
 domestic altar. It represented Mary suckling her child, with 
 Joseph looking on — a very favourite subject, especially with 
 Italian artists. The second scene — subservient, like all the 
 other ornamentation of the piece, to the central group, and 
 placed just above it — was made up of Vulcan, Venus, and Cupid, 
 who, by the way, was not the son of Vulcan. Such were the 
 three unholy Heathen deities evoked to be the companions 
 of the Holy Famil)'. I shrink from pointing out the exact 
 parallelism. 
 
 On either side of the central group stood a man-at-arms. 
 
 Below it was Christ bound and bleeding, and supported by 
 angels ; but the latter were curious figments of the artist's 
 fancy — female angels ; in other words. Heathen genii. 
 
 Heathen Caryatides, also female, supported on either side 
 the frame of the central picture. And the terminal ornament 
 
202 
 
 ROME: PAGAN AND PAPAL. 
 
 to this "domestic altar" was the shepherd Paris, with three 
 naked Heathen goddesses, Juno, Minerva, and Venus, standing 
 before him ! 
 
 Had such a composition been merely intended to illustrate 
 a Pagan myth, there would have been little fault to find with 
 it. But when we know that it was used to beautify a Christian 
 " domestic altar," what can we say but that the Christianity 
 
 which the altar represented must have sunk to the level of 
 its Heathen embellishment. 
 
 It is worth notice that the female figures on the altar-piece 
 were to the males in the proportion of eight to five. In 
 regard to the peculiar angels, we quote the following from 
 Mr. Symonds : — 
 
 " Correggio's angels are genii disimprisoned from the chalices 
 
ECCLESIASTICAL SCULPTURE. 203 
 
 of flowers, houris of an erotic paradise, elemental sprites of 
 nature wantoning in Eden in her prime. They belong to the 
 generation of fauns. Like fauns, they combine a certain 
 wildness, a dithyrambic ecstasy, a delight in rapid motion, as 
 they revel amid clouds of flowers." 
 
 But if the Church derived her idea of saints, angels, and 
 devils from the Heathen, it was natural that she should seek 
 their forms from the same source. What does the reader 
 think of those in the cut on the preceding page ? A sturdy 
 tailless devil, and a sweet sentimental-looking angel ! he 
 may perhaps exclaim. No, they are neither devil nor angel ; 
 they are not even ecclesiastical, much less Scriptural, icons. 
 They are purely Heathen fancies, and were found in one 
 of the disinterred houses of Pompeii. The first is a satyr 
 of the forest ; the second is taken from a pleasing com- 
 position representing Thetis holding Achilles by the heel and 
 dipping him in the Styx. An attendant is looking on, while 
 the genius of the place — the figure which we have copied — ■ 
 winged, and with a circular nimbus, leans over a rock to con- 
 template the scene. 
 
 Such is the origin of conventional angels and devils. To 
 the satyr the " Church " attached a tail, and he forthwith be- 
 came the Prince of Darkness in the chambers of her imagery ; 
 while the Pagan genius, the nymph of the river or the grove, 
 was transmuted into an angel of God. 
 
Medal of Eugenius IV. 
 
 Medal of John Palaeologus II. 
 
 XXXV. 
 
 THE BRONZE GATES OF ST. PETER'S. 
 
 TT7E have recently alluded to the Bronze Gates of St. 
 VV Peter's, of which, remarkable as they are, very few 
 descriptions have been written. We propose, therefore, to 
 give some particulars respecting them. 
 
 From the narthex — that is, the corridor forming the great 
 vestibule which extends along the whole front of the church — 
 there are several grand gates of entrance into the building 
 itself. Of these, one is walled up, since it is never opened 
 except in the year of Jubilee. . Another, the central gate, is 
 the ordinary entrance. A third, to the left of the last-named, 
 is the bronze two-leaved gate, of which we are about to speak, 
 and which is only opened on state occasions. It was wrought 
 about the year 1447, by the Tuscan artist Antonio Filarete, 
 for Pope Eugenius IV. 
 
 Its elaborate relievi are discoloured with age, save where 
 exploring fingers, following out the various myths and floral 
 traceries, have polished the brazen records, and made them 
 
THE BRONZE GATES OF ST. PETER'S. 205 
 
 plain. Higher up, and beyond the reach of touch, there is 
 much that cannot be deciphered, even with the aid of a glass- 
 As works of art, these gates are inferior to those which 
 Ghiberti executed, about a.d. 1440, for the Baptistery at 
 Florence ; they are, however, full of interest, and have some- 
 what of a Byzantine look. Of course they were originally 
 made for the old cathedral, which stood on the site of the 
 modern St. Peter's. 
 
 They exhibit a strange jumble of subjects — Scriptural, Tra- 
 ditional, Ecclesiastical, and Pagan ; and, set as they are at the 
 entrance to the chief of Rome's temples, form a fitting illustra- 
 tion of the more than semi-Paganism which one may expect to 
 find within. 
 
 For subjects from Holy Scripture, there are our Lord and His 
 mother ; for traditional subjects, the martyrdom of Peter and 
 Paul ; for ecclesiastical, the Council of Florence, and other 
 events in the life of Eugenius IV. There are also quantities 
 of charming fruits and flowers, mingled with beasts, birds, 
 forms of creeping things, and a multitude of other objects, 
 often arranged as a setting to the more important and 
 central tableaux, some of which we will enumerate. 
 
 First, there are several illustrations of our old friend ^sop 
 — the Fox and the Stork ; the Lion, the Fox, and the Ass ; 
 the Wolf and the Ass ; the Wolf and the Lamb ; and the Fox 
 and the Crow, so pleasantly turned into verse by La Fontaine. 
 In this scene, by the way, the cheese is curiously rendered. 
 What the shape thereof was in ^Esop's day and country I do 
 not know ; but here it resembles a big sausage, and is not very 
 unlike those cheeses encased in reeds which are sold in the 
 streets of S3Tacuse. Probably this was the prevailing shape in 
 the times of the cunning artist. 
 
 Then we have fabled beings of another kind — loathsome 
 satyrs, with whom are mingled Roman Emperors ; nymphs 
 not quite Christian, or even decent, in their propensities ; a 
 
206 ROME: PAGAN AND PAPAL. 
 
 sacrifice to Proserpine and Bacchus ; Circe extending her cup 
 of enchantments ; and Ulysses and the Syrens. Romulus and 
 Remus are draining the dugs of the she-wolf j Phryxus and 
 Helle ride to Colchis on the ram of the golden fleece ; the 
 hunter Actaeon surprises Diana and her nymphs as they are 
 bathing in the translucent wave ; unwilling Daphne is chased 
 by Apollo ; and well-pleased and brazen-faced Europa mounts 
 the bull. Here, again, Nessus strives to abduct the fair 
 Dejanira, and is slain by the poisoned shaft of Hercules ; the 
 Roman ruffians violently carry off the Sabine maids ; and 
 many other acts of woman-lifting, of violation, and of spoiUng, 
 are represented. 
 
 But over much of this sort, and especially over the adul- 
 teries of Jupiter, there figured in perpetual brass, I cast a veil. 
 Homer does indeed make the shameless god recount his 
 exploits, and that to Juno his Queen ! Homer, however, was 
 a Pagan, and had little opportunity of knowing better. But 
 what shall we say of Christians, nay, of professed ministers of 
 Christ, who deliberately record in brass and glorify such deeds 
 of darkness, exposing them to the gaze of all men, on the 
 gates of their most renowned and central church ! It is 
 scarcely possible to believe that they are there, and that for 
 nearly five centuries, first in the old and then in the present 
 cathedral, they have been advertising the sympathy of Papal 
 with Pagan Rome to the nations who come up to worship, 
 have remained as the brand upon the forehead of the woman, 
 proclaiming her to be " the mother of the harlots and the 
 abominations of the earth " ! 
 
 For centuries the Popes, the Bishops, and the Clergy of 
 the " Holy Catholic Church," as they are pleased to style 
 themselves, have habitually passed and repassed those brazen 
 ofi"ences, from generation to generation, and yet have given no 
 sign of disgust or indignation. Surely ecclesiastical celibacy 
 must be a thing very far removed from true purity and holiness. 
 
THE BRONZE GATES OF ST. PETER'S. 20/ 
 
 But if purity and holiness be lacking, it is vain to expect 
 honesty of purpose and truth, and of this we shall find a sad 
 example as we turn from the subordinate subjects portrayed 
 upon the gates to consider some of the principal relievi, four 
 in number, which set forth the praise and glory of Eugenius IV, 
 by recording certain events of his pontificate. The subject of 
 one of these is the coronation of the Emperor Sigismund ; 
 those of the other three, some leading incidents in connection 
 with the Council of Florence. " And," says the late Rev. 
 W. B. Marriott, " the general idea which, evidently, it was 
 intended herein to set forth, is that of the union in the person 
 of the Pope; as God's vicegerent upon earth, of supreme 
 power, both temporal and spiritual.'' 
 
 By the kind permission of Mr. Marriott's family I am enabled 
 to present the reader with plates of three of these relievi. They 
 are taken from drawings prepared by an Italian artist for his 
 learned and interesting works, Vestiarium Christianum, and 
 The Testimony of the Catacombs. 
 
 The first represents, in one of its compartments, the corona- 
 tion of the German Emperor Sigismund by Eugenius IV. 
 The Emperor is at the feet of the Pope, who is placing the 
 crown upon his head, while his German attendants stand 
 behind him. The whole is admirably executed, with careful 
 attention to the costume of the time, the two groups being 
 united by wreaths of flowers. 
 
 In the other compartment we have the procession of the 
 Pope and Emperor through the city to the Castle of St. Angelo, 
 the inferiority of the Emperor being signified by the placing of 
 his name beneath his charger, while that of the Pope is seen 
 above. To receive them the Governor of the Castle, bare- 
 headed and banner in hand, comes forth mounted upon a 
 noble charger. In my humble opinion he is the finest figure 
 of this masterly casting, and the chef-d' xiivre of Filarete. 
 
 The second relia'o is intended to illustrate the journey of 
 
208 ROME: PAGAN AND PAPAL. 
 
 John Palseologus II. from Constantinople to Ferrara, and its 
 castings are arranged in three groups. 
 
 On the left, the Emperor, having set out from his capital, is 
 seen seated in his galley on the voyage. Beside him is Joseph, 
 the Patriarch of Constantinople ; trumpets are braying, and 
 the rowers stand to their oars. Fore and aft may be seen the 
 two-headed eagle, the standard of imperial Rome after her 
 division into the Eastern and Western Empires — previously to 
 that time she bore the single-headed eagle. In this case it 
 may be the ensign of Sigismund, Emperor of the West, from 
 whom Eugenius possibly borrowed the vessel ; but more pro- 
 bably it is that of Palseologus himself, hoisted in his honour 
 in the Pope's galley, by which he was conveyed to Italy ; 
 not the eagle which is now borne by Germany and Austria, 
 but that which appears upon the standard of Russia, and 
 sicrnifies the claim of her Czar to be the Caesar of the Eastern 
 Empire. 
 
 The central group exhibits the landing of the Emperor and 
 his suite in the Venetian territory, the Emperor wearing the 
 great shaded helmet of the Byzantine Empire, called the 
 Kajx-qXavKLov. Behind, and close to him, is the patriarch, clad 
 in mandyas and cowl 
 
 The third and last subject of this first set of scenes is the 
 reception of the Emperor and Patriarch at Ferrara by the Pope. 
 The Emperor is bare-headed, and on bent knee at the feet of 
 Eugenius ; the Patriarch stands humbly at the door, until it 
 shall please the vicegerent of Christ to take notice of him ; 
 while the Pope wears his tiara and sits enthroned. Thus did 
 it suit the pride of the papacy to represent the event, and in 
 such a manner was Filarete commanded to perpetuate it. But, 
 in the words of Marriott, " f/ii's last scene is tvholly imaginary^ 
 nothing of the kind having really occurred. What actually hap- 
 pened was the exact opposite of what is here represented, and 
 that in every particular, from first to last, almost without a 
 

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 / 
 
 
 
 t Feri's 
 
THE. OUNLlL Uh tijUHi 
 

 
 ^^j 
 
 i''A^\^A^^3f^:^^i^,^si 
 
 THt COUII L 
 rthe UU1.C1I bDcji 
 
 -*r:^1^#^^ 
 
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THE BRONZE GATES OF ST. PETER'S. 209 
 
 single exception." And in commenting generally upon the 
 relievi, the same learned writer also observes, " In some im- 
 portant particulars they represent events, not as they really 
 did occur, but as, according to Roman theory, they ought to 
 have occurred." 
 
 The third set of scenes also contains three actions. 
 
 On the left is the Council of Florence, July 6th, 1440. In 
 this scene, the Emperor is seated as well as the Pope ; but the 
 Papal supremacy and pride are still asserted and maintained. 
 For .while the Emperor's seat is placed on the ground, that of 
 Eugenius is set on a raised dais, or platform. On the left of 
 the Emperor stands the Patriarch, who died before the separa- 
 tion of the Council ; the two orators, Roman cardinals, and 
 others, fill up the picture. 
 
 The next group exhibits the Emperor and his suite leaving 
 Florence after the termination of the Council, in order to 
 embark at Venice. All are on horseback, and the dresses are 
 very curious and suggestive. On the Emperor's left is the 
 learned Bessarion, Archbishop of Nic^ea, who, in spite of his 
 learning and rank, stooped to be bribed by Papal gold. 
 
 The third group gives the last scene — the embarcation for 
 Constantinople. Again the trumpeters appear, but the rowers 
 are not yet in their places ; nor is the sail — the great lateen 
 sail, which is still in use — unfurled ; for the ship is riding at 
 anchor. As before, an ensign with the double eagle is at the 
 prow ; but above it floats the Lion of St. Mark, an indication, 
 probably, that this galley, at least, was Venetian. 
 
 In heraldic details Filarete seems to be most minute and 
 careful. But he has greatly failed in his figure of the Emperor 
 ascending the ship. It is difficult to conceive such an absurd 
 bundle of a man to be the same as the stately horseman in the 
 central group. Both artist and Emperor seem to have been 
 more familiar with equestrian than with marine affairs. 
 
 The last of the four relievi is divided into two compart- 
 
 14 
 
210 ROME: FAG AN AND PAPAL. 
 
 ments— the first depicting the reception of the envoys from 
 Eastern Churches by the Pope ; the second, the solemn entry 
 of the envoys into Rome. 
 
 Taken together, then, these tableaux are intended to exhibit 
 the supremacy of the Pope over Sigismund, Emperor of the 
 West, and Paloeologus, Emperor of the East, together with 
 the Patriarch of Constantinople and all his clergy. And if 
 facts would not lend themselves to this purpose, they were 
 wrested until they became subservient. 
 
 Such are the bronze gates of St. Peter's, cast in com- 
 memoration of that Council of ill repute which was moved 
 from Ferrara to Florence a.d. 1440, the only Council which 
 ever met for the exclusive purpose of re-uniting Christendom. 
 
 It was arranged that there should be a joint declaration 
 of the Eastern and Western Churches on the disputed point, 
 the Procession of the Holy Ghost. A definition was drawn 
 up by the Latins, to which the Greeks agreed, and the latter 
 left the Council with the understanding that they were to 
 retain their own rites. However, it would not have suited 
 the purpose of Pope Eugenius to admit this : he delayed 
 the assistance he had promised them against the Turks, and 
 diplomatized until he thought he could tell Europe that they 
 had conformed to the Roman rite. Mr. Foulkes, in his power- 
 ful pamphlet. The ChurcJCs Creed and the Crown s Creed, thus 
 speaks of the whole transaction : — " Of all Councils that 
 ever were held, I suppose there never was one in which 
 hypocrisy, duplicity, and worldly motives played a more 
 disgraceful part. How the Council of Basle was outwitted, 
 and Florence named as the place to which the Greeks should 
 come ; how the galleys of the Pope outstripped the galleys 
 of the Council, and bore the Greeks in triumph to a town 
 in the centre of Italy, where the Pope was all-powerful ; how 
 they were treated there ; and why they were subsequently 
 removed to Florence, would reveal a series of intrigues of 
 
THE BRONZE GATES OF ST. PETER'S. 211 
 
 the lowest order, if I had space to transcribe them : unfor- 
 tunately they were too patent at every stage of the Council 
 for the real object of its promoters to admit of the slightest 
 doubt. Between John Palseologus and Eugenius it was a 
 barter of temporal and spiritual gains from first to last. One 
 had his capital to guarantee from attack ; the other his 
 position in Italy to establish. Each hoped to be victoi-ious 
 through the other — Eugenius over the Basle fathers, Palsologus 
 over the Turks. The more sailors and soldiers the Pope 
 promised, the greater submission the Emperor engaged to 
 extort from his bishops to the teaching of the Latin Church." 
 
 Such is the testimony of a learned Roman Catholic and 
 upright man to the character of the council of Florence. 
 And they are acts of this ill-conditioned assembly — not worse, 
 however, so far as I know, than several others — which Pope 
 Eugenius boldly commanded Filarete to execute in bronze 
 for the gates of St. Peter's ! Brazen deeds in brazen castings, 
 and set, as we have already seen, in shameless framework 
 of immoral actions — the latter illustrating the lusts of the 
 flesh, the former the desires of the mind. 
 
 As for the Emperor and his followers, it fared ill with 
 them on their return to Constantinople. So badly were 
 they received that they were induced to disown their acts 
 to their countrymen. " The very bishops who were parties 
 to the transaction found it necessary to express their reproba- 
 tion of it " (Grier's Epitome). 
 
Bell from Padua. 
 
 XXXVI. 
 
 THE SHRINE OF ST. ANTHONY OF PADUA. 
 
 AFTER arriving at Padua and settling yourself in your 
 hotel, the Stella d'Oro, your first business will be to 
 step into a cab, and, as the driver is shutting the door, to 
 say, " II Santo." 
 
 In less than ten minutes he will set you down at the church 
 of St. Anthony, who is "the saint ^^ par excellence at Padua. 
 He was born at Lisbon in a.d. 1231, and, though he lived 
 but thirty-six years, is the same greatly-tried and wonder- 
 working saint whose temptations Teniers and other Dutch 
 painters have so comically portrayed. The Dutch evidently 
 had a fancy for the grotesque side of II Santo. 
 
 The vast church which contains his shrine, built from the 
 designs of the famous Niccolo Pisano, is filled with remarkable 
 works of art. It has seven domes, and is thus somewhat 
 oriental in its appearance. The saint's sanctuary is, I suppose, 
 the most splendid and the most popular in Italy. It is 
 separated from the church by an arcade of round arches, on 
 fine marbH columns, supporting a magnificent screen, glittering 
 with varied marbles, and adorned with exquisite sculptures. 
 
THE SHRINE OF ST. ANTHONY OF TADUA. 21 3 
 
 This sinctuary, which is a side chapel, contains the tomb 
 of the saint, and in front of it the general worship is carried 
 on in the church by hundreds of devotees. But within the 
 sanctuary, at the back of the tomb, a very strange ceremony 
 is performed. The tomb is raised some five feet above the 
 floor of the church, and is placed about eight or nine feet 
 from the back wall, so that there is space to walk behind 
 as well as on the otaer sides of it. During ray visits to Padua 
 ■ — the last was in 1879 — I have often rested upon a ledge 
 which runs along the north wall, and watched the proceed- 
 ings. 
 
 The suppliants approach, cross themselves, and then with 
 the right hand touch the large perpendicular marble slab 
 which forms the back of the tomb, the front and surface 
 of it being used as the altar for Mass. They place either 
 the tips of their fingers or the whole hand upon it, and, 
 while carefully preserving their contact, recite their prayers 
 for some minutes, apparently under the impression that virtue 
 is flowing into them from the saint through their fingers. 
 I have seen as many as ten right hands placed at one time 
 upon the slab. Other suppliants stand near praying, and 
 waiting until the departure of earlier comers shall have made 
 room for them. On one occasion a very little lady was 
 standing by me, and, seeing her need, I moved out of her 
 way. She acknowledged the civility with a bow, and at once 
 performed the accustomed rite, with hand uplifted to the 
 shrine, which she could with difiiculty reach. On another 
 occasion a very odd worshipper presented herself, the oddness 
 consisting in a mixture of grandeur and poverty : she wore a 
 fine dress with a long sweeping train, but had no shoes on 
 her feet. Often devotees may be seen rubbing their head 
 against the stone, sometimes passing their hand over it, still 
 more frequently kissing it. 
 
 It would be difficult to connect such worship with the Chris- 
 
214 ROME: PAGAN AND PAPAL. 
 
 tianity of the New Testament ; while in the splendid decora- 
 tions of the shrine there is pure, or perhaps it would be more 
 correct to say impure, Heathenism. 
 
 I allude to the marble arabesques, of which there are many 
 executed in low relief, with exquisite skill, by an artist who 
 seems to me a dangerous rival of Donatello. Nothing in 
 marble can be conceived more beautiful than some of his 
 female forms : in design as well as execution he exceeds 
 Niccolo Pisano. On one of his works we may discern his 
 name — " Matteus Allio faciebat." 
 
 There is of course the usual amount of beautiful women, 
 bare to the hips, which terminate in foliage, large-breasted 
 sphynxes, griffins, hippocampi, and other monsters — strange 
 decorations, if the Lord Jesus is supposed to have anything 
 to do with the place ; but still not quite so mischievous, per- 
 haps, to holy purity and undistracted worship as the following. 
 
 On the left pilaster of the shrine, sacrifices are depicted in 
 three marble panels. In one, some thin-robed half-clad women 
 are leading an ox decorated as a victim ; in another there are 
 two girls clothed in the same transparent drapery, with a Cupid 
 raised on a stool, sacrificing at an altar. The third exhibits 
 two other girls similarly vested, carrying a wreath, and appa- 
 rently forming a part of the sacrificial procession. Above these 
 are the three Graces in a state of nature, and far too beautiful 
 for the place in which they are. Another group in the same 
 perfectly nude condition, and of equal beauty, consists of two 
 nymphs and a child ; another of two nymphs and a youth 
 wounded or languishing, and so on. All the figures are a foot 
 or more in height. 
 
 On the in-ide of the other pilaster are figures too gross to 
 be described. Suffice it to say that they are men playing on 
 instruments, while women dance — a group corresponding to 
 one on the opposite pilaster, where women are playing and 
 boys dancing. 
 
THE SHRINE OF ST. ANTHONY OF PADUA. 21 5 
 
 Tnese incentives to passion in a so-called Christian church, 
 one of the most frequented in Europe, and at a shrine of more 
 than ordinary renown ! And the priest every day celebrating 
 the mass in close vicinity to such obscenities, as he has done 
 for certuries ! 
 
 How near is superstition to licentiousness ; how ill-defined 
 the boindary between Papal and Pagan Rome ! 
 
 But ihere is in this church of St. Anthony another painful 
 manifestation of Heathenism — the famous bronze Paschal 
 Candelabrum of Riccio. It is a splendid specimen of art, but 
 of Pagat art ; yet great prominence is given to it by the clergy 
 of this ciurch ; for it stands on the right of the high altar, from 
 which it is separated only by another fine casting, the effigy of 
 a bishop 
 
 It was set up in 15 16, and was the work of Andrea Riccio, 
 the son of a Milanese goldsmith, whose portrait — the curls, 
 from whch he was called Crispi, escaping from his round cap — 
 may be :een, in the choir of the church, in his noble bas-relief 
 of Davie dancing before the Ark. 
 
 It is Aery lofty, and is raised on a pedestal of white marble. 
 " Four ^phynxes," says Perkins, in his Italian Sculptors, " sit at 
 the angfes of the base, as if guarding the secret meaning of its 
 ornameits, some of which Oedipus himself would find it diffi- 
 cult to penetrate." 
 
 Abov^e the Sphynxes come four castings of Heathen subjects, 
 ir which naked men and women, Jupiter with lewd surround- 
 ings, sea-monsters, licentious triumphs of Neptune and Venus, 
 and other Paganisms, are placed in offensive juxtaposition to 
 the same number of Scriptural subjects just above them, the 
 only figures which redeem the work from entire Heathenism, 
 j^et even these are not all Scriptural : for one of them is Christ 
 delivering souls from Limbo — the fable being treated by the 
 artist in the same way as by the Limoges enameller in a plaque 
 which may be seen at the South Kensington Museum. 
 
2l6 
 
 ROME: PAGAN AND PAPAL. 
 
 Above these come Centaurs mounted by children ; women 
 in classic attire, or in no attire at all ; winged genii, cuf)ids, 
 giiffins, et hoc gemis omne. 
 
 One cannot look at them without the thought — If such are 
 the morals which Rome honours in Church, how must it be 
 out of Church ! 
 
 However, bad as Riccio's candlestick is, there miglx have 
 been something worse ; for Perkins tells us that another artist. 
 Da Grandi, having produced a design for a sculpturd to be 
 erected in the same church, " its extreme Paganism so «^ocked 
 the Commissioners that they dismissed him." How |t could 
 have been more Pagan than the candlestick, or even th« shrine 
 of the saint, I am unable to say. 
 
 Everywhere in that age the Church was mingled, not merely 
 with the world, but with the Heathen world. 
 
 And, alas ! the tide, which receded somewhat at the Reforma- 
 tion, is now returning upon our land with rapid advance 
 
XXXVII. 
 
 THE BURLESQUE SIDE OF SUPERSTITION. 
 
 SUPERSTITION is not without its burlesque side, and 
 since St. Anthony furnishes several instances of the fact, 
 we will, while the saint is before us, relate one or two of them, 
 and also some others with which he is not connected. 
 
 In the Daily News of August 4th, 1879, a curious story- 
 appeared in reference to him. It was taken from the lisbon 
 Revista Militar — the official military journal of Portugal — and 
 described, from the State Archives of Rio de Janeiro, the form 
 of " conferring on good St. Anthony the grade of Lieutenant- 
 Colonel in the Portuguese army by King John VI." This 
 distinction was a reward to the saint for services rendered to 
 the said army. " Therefore," runs the document, " we have 
 resolved to raise (!) him to the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel of 
 Infantry. He will receive the usual pay through our Field 
 Marshal, De Cuntra. Given at our capital, August 1st, 18 14." 
 
 Agreeably with this it is officially added, " that, from the 
 date of his commission as an infantry officer, Lieutenant-Colonel 
 St. Anthony has been borne on the strength of the Portuguese 
 regular army down to the present da)', somebody, or rather, 
 a succession of somebodies, having regularly for sixty-five con- 
 secutive years drawn the pay of this eminent member of the 
 Church militant." 
 
 But we will go back to the time when St. Anthony was still 
 in the flesh. Then his miracles were countless ; the Church 
 at Padua is filled with representations of them, and some are 
 
2l8 ROME: PAGAN AND PAPAL. 
 
 very characteristic of the morals of the time. But the most 
 famous of his wonders is his sermon to the fishes, a picture 
 of which may be found on the south side of the church, near 
 a vestry door. There they are, both saint and fishes, and I 
 have stood gazing at them for a long time, fascinated, not 
 exactly by their beauty, but by their quaintness. In the 
 Borghese Palace at Rome there is a picture of the same scene 
 by Paul Veronese. 
 
 The story is this. When the saint was at Rimini, the people 
 would not hear him. Whereupon he repaired to the shore, 
 and stretching forth his hand, cried, " Hear me, ye fishes ; for 
 these unbelievers refuse to listen." 
 
 " And truly," says the chronicler, " it was a marvellous thing 
 to see how an infinite number of fishes, great and little, lifted 
 their heads above water, and listened attentively to the sermon 
 of the saint." 
 
 He addressed them as "Cari et sancti pisces," "Dear and 
 holy fishes." And, continues the legend, at the conclusion of 
 the sermon, the fishes bowed to him with profound humi- 
 lity, and with an appearance of reverent religion. So the 
 saint pronounced his benediction, and the congregation dis- 
 persed. 
 
 While we are on the subject of fishes, we may mention the 
 strange tradition respecting the John Dory. How this inhabi- 
 tant of the sea got his name of John, I do not know; perhaps 
 it was an affectionate tribute to his good fellowship, because 
 he is such a capital dinner companion. According to some, 
 the whole name is a corruption of the French Jaune dorce, i.e., 
 gilded, or golden, yellow ; this, if not altogether right, may be so 
 at least as regards the origin of Dory. The French, however, 
 turn Golden John into a sort of a saint, only they do not call 
 him St. John, but connect him with St. Peter. Hence it has 
 been supposed, with some probability, that Dory is derived 
 from adore, i.e., " worshipped." The story is that this was the 
 
THE BURLESQUE SIDE OF SUPERSTITIOM. 219 
 
 fish out of whose mouth Peter took the tribute-money, and 
 that the conspicuous marks on its side are the impressions of 
 the apostle's finger and thumb. 
 
 There may seem to be a difficulty or two in the way. 
 Troublesome quibblers, for instance, may suggest that the 
 Dory is a salt-water fish, while the Sea of Galilee, into which 
 Peter cast his net, is fresh water. They may go on still further 
 to urge that the Sea of Galilee has no outlet whatever into the 
 Mediterranean, and, therefore, request to be informed in what 
 manner the Dory took his journey overland. They may also 
 affect to think it improbable that the marks should appear in the 
 Dory's children or grandchildren, though he may have displayed 
 them in his own body ; or they may, perhaps, even deny that 
 the apostle's fingers could have left such impressions behind 
 them. 
 
 But the first two objections are trifling, and no good purpose 
 is served by disputing about trifles. Let them pass ; and as 
 to the others, see what Mr. Darwin has to say on the subject 
 of transmitting impressions to posterity ; remember, as we 
 have already shown, that Peter left the marks of his head and 
 knees upon rocks, substances far less impressible than the soft 
 body of a fish, and where is the improbability of the story ? 
 The French Catholics found no difficulty ; and, consequently, 
 the fish was popularly canonized, and holds a proud pre- 
 eminence among his fellows, something like that of our stately 
 Sir Loin among joints. 
 
 If St. Anthony preached to the fishes, the birds also had 
 their apostle in the person of St. Francis, whose sermon, 
 addressed to them as " Brother Birds," is still extant. In the 
 fine church dedicated to this saint at Assisi, there is a picture 
 by Giotto representing the scene, among the audience in which 
 I was particularly struck with the demeanour of a little wren. 
 
 But, before taking a final leave of St. Anthony and his 
 church at Padua, we must mention one more of his wonders, 
 
220 ROME: PAGAN AND PAPAL. 
 
 the memorial of which, in the shape of a bronze by Donatello, 
 may be seen in the Chapel of the Sacrament. 
 
 It is concerned with a mule at Rimini, of which we are told 
 that, "rejecting the fodder which her master gave her, after 
 a rigorous fast of many days, she prostrated herself before the 
 Host which the saint was carrying to confound the heretic Bon- 
 villo, who denied the real presence of our Lord in the Sacrament." 
 
 The audacious impudence of such a story — you can buy a 
 book containing it in the vestry of the church — would be, we 
 should think, sufficient to keep many other Bonvillos in the 
 same kind of unbelief. 
 
 But a Latin work entitled Historia Societatis Jesu informs us 
 that there have been pious asses as well as pious mules. Its 
 author, a Jesuit of high repute, narrates as follows : — "A priest 
 who was carrying the host to a sick man had to pass through a 
 drove of asses. To his utter astonishment the beasts not only 
 made way for him, but fell devoutly on their knees as he 
 passed. They then formed into line, followed him in proces- 
 sion, and waited at the door till he had performed his ministra- 
 tion. Nor did they return to their pasture till they had received 
 his benediction." 
 
 We may not inaptly conclude this chapter with a notice of 
 the Feast of the Ass, which — together with the Feast of Fools, 
 the Boy Bishop, and other buffooneries — was once an institu- 
 tion of the Church. Till I knew of it, I never could under- 
 stand what Francesca meant by introducing a braying ass into 
 his picture of the Nativity, which is now in the National 
 Gallery. In the company of certain very ugly singing angels — 
 neither angels, as we know them, nor human beings, can be 
 anything but ugly when they have their mouths open — the 
 creature stands, and in his fashion also sings, lifting up his 
 ugly head. One almost seems to hear his discordant bray 
 drowning the angels' song. But in former times such a voice 
 was sometimes heard in Roman Catholic congregations, as 
 
THE BURLESQUE SIDE OF SUPERSTITION. 221 
 
 we may see by the following extract from Hone's Ancient 
 Mysteries : — 
 
 " The Feast of the Ass, anciently celebrated at Beauvais 
 every year on the 14th of January, commemorated the flight of 
 the Virgin into Egypt with the Infant Jesus. To represent the 
 Virgin, the most beautiful girl in the city, with a pretty child 
 in her arms, was placed on an ass richly caparisoned. Thus 
 mounted she preceded the Bishop and his clergy, and they all 
 went in grand procession from the cathedral to the church of 
 St. Stephen. On entering the chancel they ranged themselves 
 on the right side of the altar ; the mass immediately commenced, 
 and the Introit, Lord, have mercy upon tes, Gloria Patri, the 
 Creed, and other parts of the service, were terminated by the 
 burden of Hee-Havv, Hee-Haw, in imitation of the braying of 
 an ass ; the officiating priest, instead of saying Ita Missa est at 
 the end of the Mass, concluded by singing three times Hee- 
 Haw, Hee-Haw, Hee-Haw," and was answered by a general 
 braying from the congregation. 
 
 From the Missal composed for the service of this Feast by 
 an Archbishop of Sens, who died in 1222, these additional 
 particulars have been gleaned : — 
 
 " The Anthem being concluded, two canons were deputed 
 to fetch the ass to the table, where the great chanter sat to 
 read the order of the ceremonies, and the names of those who 
 were to assist in them. The animal, clad with precious priestly 
 ornaments, was solemnly conducted to the middle of the choir, 
 during which procession a hymn in praise of the ass was sung 
 in a major key." Its first and last stanzas have been thus 
 Anglicized : — 
 
 " From the country of the East 
 
 Came this strong and handsome beast, 
 This able Ass — beyond compare 
 Heavy loads and packs to bear. 
 
 Huzza, Seignor Ass, Huzza ! 
 
222 ROME: PAGAN AND PAPAL. 
 
 " Amen ! bray, most honoured Ass, 
 Sated now with grain and grass : 
 Amen repeat. Amen reply, 
 And disregard antiquity. 
 
 Huzza, Seignor Ass, Huzza ! " 
 
 Another Feast of the Ass was anciently celebrated in France, 
 in honour of Balaam's ass. At one of them, Warton tells us, 
 " the clergy walked in procession on Christmas Day, habited 
 to represent the prophets and others. Moses appeared in an 
 alb and cope, with a long beard and a rod. David had a green 
 vestment. Balaam, with an immense pair of spurs, rode on a 
 wooden ass, which enclosed a speaker. There were also six 
 Jews and six Gentiles. Among other characters, the poet 
 Virgil was introduced singing monkish rhymes, as a Gentile 
 prophet and a translator of the Sibylline oracles. They thus 
 moved in procession through the body of the church chanting 
 versicles, and conversing in character on the nativity and king- 
 dom of Christ, till they came into the choir." 
 
 Palm Sunday, the Festival of Christ's entry into Jerusalem, 
 was another time at which the ass was prominent. In refer- 
 ence to the celebration of this day in England, Hone quotes 
 from an old book the words : — " Upon Palme Sundaye they play 
 the foles sadely, drawinge after them an asse in a rope, when 
 they be not moch distant from the woden asse that they drawe." 
 
 Some kind of performance with an ass used to be almost 
 universal at this festival. At Easter 1879 the Naples corre- 
 spondent of The Times wrote thus :■ — • 
 
 " All the incidents of Palm Sunday, when Christ entered 
 Jerusalem riding upon an ass, are, as it is well known, drama- 
 tized. One marks the progress of civilization in the diminution 
 of these ceremonials. Time was when the Neapolitans were 
 accustomed to place an ass at the head of the procession with 
 a figure on it. This is now omitted, and the procession of 
 priests enters the church followed by the mob, who rush in 
 after them." 
 
XXXVIIT. 
 
 ORVIETO AND TRANSUBSTANTIATION. 
 
 ONE of the least known and yet one of the most in- 
 teresting cities of Italy is Orvieto. Its name is pro- 
 bably a corruption from Urbs Vetus, a city of ancient Etruria. 
 Its situation, on a highway between Rome and Florence, is 
 remarkable and picturesque. It is built on a lofty plateau 
 of rock, precipitous on every side, which being strengthened 
 by fortifications rendered the city impregnable during the 
 middle ages. 
 
 Thither in troublous times — and such were frequent — the 
 Popes were wont to flee — like Bishop Hatto to his castle 
 on the Rhine — that the rocky fastness might afford them 
 security against their foes. Indeed, at different periods, no 
 less than thirty-two Popes are recorded to have sought refuge 
 in this stronghold, from the lofty steeps of which they could 
 defy all assailants. 
 
 Nor were they likely to suffer from the calamity most 
 incident to such a site — want of water ; for the place contains 
 a magnificent well, constructed by Langallo, and called San 
 Patrizio, after St. Patrick. This well is similar to the grand 
 work of the Sultan Saladin at Cairo, and is probably unique in 
 Europe. It is cut in the rock, and winding round it in an 
 outer walled circle are two sets of steps for mules, one de- 
 scending, the other ascending, with a door to each on the top. 
 The stairs are paved with brick, and sufficiently lighted by 
 seventy window-shaped openings looking into the vast shaft. 
 
224 ROME: PAGAN AXD PAPAL. 
 
 The shaft itself is open to the top, and is a hundred and 
 seventy-nine feet deep and forty six in diameter. It is a noble 
 work, and its proportions and symmetry are most striking. 
 
 The well at the fortress of Konigstein on the Elbe is fine, but 
 is not to be compared with that of Orvieto. There is, however, 
 a remarkable likeness between the German and the Italian 
 fortresses in regard to their respective precipitous sites. In 1S79 
 I passed with my daughter almost directly from the latter to 
 the former, and we were much struck by the similarity of their 
 appearance. 
 
 Even the visitor who does not care for antiquities can 
 scarcely fail to be interested in the curious and picturesque 
 city of Orvieto, in the well, and in the beauty of the surround- 
 ing country. The well, which would seem less uncommon 
 in the East, but is a wonder in the West, should be visited in 
 passing, as you approach or leave the hotel, since the distance 
 is considerable. Nor must the Etruscan Cemetery, lately 
 unearthed, and described and figured in Dennis' Cities of 
 Etniria, be neglected. It is of curious construction, very 
 ancient, and perfect. Fragments of pottery are lying here and 
 there, and also large wrought stones, some of which appear to 
 have been connected with Phallic worship. When I visited 
 the place a young mother and her little daughter were waiting 
 to show us the Cemetery, both of them very interesting, and, 
 though southerners, fair as the moon. 
 
 In 1263, when Urban IV. was residing at Orvieto, the 
 Roman world was excited by the report of a wonderful miracle 
 said to have taken place in the neighbouring town of Bolsena, 
 and hence called the miracle of Bolsena. To understand it we 
 must remember that the doctrine of Transubstantiation had 
 now been promulgated for nearly fifty years, but was not so 
 universally received as its supporters wished. The story runs 
 as follows : — 
 
ORVIETO AND TRANSUBSTANTIATION. 22 5 
 
 A young Bohemian priest, who was somewhat sceptical in 
 the matter of the dogma just mentioned, was staying at 
 Bolsena, and, while celebrating mass there, beheld blood in 
 abundance flowing from the broken parts of the wafer, and 
 also bubbling from the cup, just as it is now represented in the 
 Church of Sa. Christina. Moreover, the blood flowed freely 
 over the pavement of the chapel — a dark, damp, half-subter- 
 ranean place — in which the miracle occurred, and its stains are 
 still shown under a grating on the floor — at least they were as 
 late as 1879, ^^hen I saw them. 
 
 Of course the priest was immediately converted, and betook 
 himself to Orvieto to make the wonder known to the Pope, 
 and to get absolution for his former unbelief. Then Urban 
 sent the Bishop of Orvieto, in whose diocese the miracle had 
 taken place, to fetch its signs, the wafer and the linen, which 
 were carefully conveyed to Orvieto. 
 
 Thus was a bold and well-timed falsehood, of a kind suitable 
 to the age, devised for the purpose of popularizing the useful 
 doctrine of Transubstantiation. Nor was the Church slow to 
 follow up its advantage, and to make the most of it. Urban 
 went forth in state to meet the evidences of so great a wonder : 
 the red-stained napkin — or corporal — was exhibited ; the 
 wafer bearing the marks of a copious enundation of blood was 
 set before the eyes of the people. Who could doubt proofs so 
 clear ? A church, the sjjlendid cathedral of Orvieto, was 
 ordered to be built in commemoration of the prodigy. And 
 Ugolino Vieri, the great artist of Siena, was commissioned to 
 construct a reliquary — with a fagade like that of the cathedral, 
 worthy of treasures so inestimable ; a task which he executed 
 with marvellous skill and rapidity. 
 
 Chiefest of all, a bull was published (1264), directing that the 
 event should be commemorated by the perpetual observance 
 of a new festival, that of Corpus Christi — the body of Christ — 
 which has given its name to one of the colleges at Oxford. It 
 
 15 
 
226 ROME: PAGAN AND PAPAL. 
 
 is known in France under the name of the Fete-Dieu, or God's 
 Festival, when Le bon Dieu, as the French call it, or in other 
 words, the wafer, is carried through the town, and people at 
 the windows exclaim, " God is passing ! " 
 
 In so suspicious a manner, by a report of what had 
 happened in " a dark and dirty vault " — for so the chapel is 
 described in Murray's Guide — situated in an obscure country 
 town, and on the testimony of a foreign stranger, was the 
 imposture of Transubstantiation confirmed. Devised to suit 
 the gross darkness of the age, and followed up with the most 
 determined and unblushing effrontery, the story was successful. 
 
 The reliquary, to which we alluded above, is a great curiosity 
 and a marvel of art. It is large, no less than four hundred 
 pounds of silver having been used to make it. Its chief beauty 
 lies in the statuettes, and especially in the enamels, with which 
 the front is covered. Though it is more than five hundred 
 years old, the lustrous blue, as brilliant as can be conceived, 
 which is the prevailing colour, is still fresh and perfect, except 
 in the case of one enamel. This, from the handling to which 
 it has been subjected by being carried every year with the 
 wafer in the procession of Corpus Christi, and possibly some- 
 times to the sick, is nearly obliterated. A piece of red coral, 
 or something like it, marks externally the precise spot where, 
 within, in the upper part of the reliquary, the miraculous host 
 is said to be preserved. 
 
 M. Darcel, in his interesting Notice Dcs Emaiix Du Louvre 
 (Paris, 1867), speaks of Ugolino's tabernacle as the most re- 
 markable work of that age which has come down to us, and also 
 gives his opinion that the peculiar lustrous enamel was probably 
 discovered by the accidental falling of a few drops of water 
 upon the heated metal. " But," says he, " no one interested 
 in these things can ever see them, since, with the exception of 
 two days, they are kept under the custody of four keys, which 
 it is impossible to unite." The Guide Books also state that 
 
ORVIETO AND TRANSUBSTANTIATION. 22/ 
 
 considerable difficulty is experienced in getting a sight of the 
 relics. 
 
 However, a secret was disclosed to me, which enabled me to 
 accomplish the task with the greatest possible faciUty. On 
 arriving at Siena one day from Rome, after having just passed, 
 as at other times, under the very walls of Orvieto, I met a 
 French gentleman at dinner, who told me that he had seen the 
 relics, and that the landlord of the Belle Arli ha.d arranged the 
 matter for him. I at once wrote to the landlord of the Belle 
 Arti, begging him to perform the same kind office for me, and 
 on the next day started for Orvieto.. 
 
 But before describing the visit, let me put together the dates 
 of the events which have been enumerated in connection with 
 the historic cathedral of the place. 
 
 A.D. 1 215. The term and doctrine of Transubstantiation 
 adopted and confirmed by the fourth Lateran 
 Council. 
 
 1263. The miracle of Bolsena. 
 
 1264. Bull of Urban IV. for the establishment of the 
 
 festival of Corpus Christi. 
 1290. The Cathedral of Orvieto founded. 
 1309. The Cathedral opened for service. 
 1338. The silver Reliquary made. 
 
 1357-63. The Chapel of the Reliquary adorned with 
 
 mural paintings made expressly with reference 
 
 to the sacrament of the Eucharist. 
 
 These historic dates connected with the Cathedral of Orvieto 
 
 are by no means unimportant, closely united as that edifice is 
 
 with the doctrine of Transubstantiation, which it will be noticed 
 
 is, comparatively, a modern innovation. On that dangerous 
 
 deceit, as the Thirty-first Article of the Church of England 
 
 calls it, rests another fable, that of Priesthood, and on the fable 
 
 of Priesthood is raised the mighty and overshadowing fabric 
 
 of the Church of Rome. 
 
XXXIX. 
 
 THE CATHEDRAL OF OR FIE TO. 
 Part I. 
 
 UPON my arrival at Orvieto I went to the Belle Arti. 
 Imagine an hotel named the Fine Arts in England ! But 
 what do we northern barbarians know of such matters ! 
 
 The hotel proved to be an old palace, and I soon found my- 
 self installed in a noble painted chamber, one of its apartments. 
 The head waiter did the honours of the house for his master — 
 an artist ; hence, no doubt, the name of the inn — and procured 
 the permission to view the relics, for which I had asked. 
 
 He was a young Italian, a nice obliging fellow, who had 
 recently been connected with a tragic event in French history. 
 Serving as valet to Monseigneur Darbois, Archbishop of Paris, 
 at the time of the Communist emeiite, he was imprisoned with 
 his master. At the final scene, when the Archbishop was shot, 
 he was present, and had he been a Frenchman would have been 
 executed with the prelate ; but the Italian Embassy at Paris 
 interfered, and he was saved. 
 
 " Did you not," said a lady to me ; " Did you not observe 
 an expression of melancholy about the young man, marking 
 him as one chastened by suffering?" Women are of quicker 
 perception than men. Yes, I did observe it, after the remark, 
 and still see it with my mind's eyes. 
 
 The shade on the man's countenance put me in remembrance 
 of the fine delicate and melancholy face of Platina, the man 
 of letters and historian of the Popes. He appears in a great 
 
THE CATHEDRAL OF OR VIE TO. 229 
 
 mural picture of Melozzo da Forli in one of the rooms of the 
 Vatican picture gallery, the third on the left as you enter, in 
 the midst of a wicked surrounding of Roveres and Riarios. 
 Poor fellow ! he had a painful retrospect ; for having been 
 suspected by his evil master Pius II., a previous Pope, he 
 had been stretched on the rack. 
 
 But to return to Orvieto. At ten o'clock in the forenoon I 
 repaired to the Cathedral by appointment, having previously 
 visited it, both the day before and early the same morning, 
 to acquaint myself with localities. Of the fagade I will only 
 say that there is, perhaps, nothing in Italy to equal it. 
 Designed and executed, as it was, by artists of inimitable skill, 
 its materials — marble, mosaic, and bronze — are worthy of their 
 handling, for it is a miracle of art. Its site, too, is admirable, 
 being free from any surroundings. 
 
 Of the interior, the transept is the most remarkable part, 
 and is formed by two chapels, both of them shut in by gates. 
 The one, the chapel of the Sacrament, or of the Santissimo 
 Corporale, is so called because within it is deposited the 
 corporal, or napkin, stained with the blood of Christ (!), as 
 well as a piece of the wafer from which the blood flowed. 
 
 Both of these chapels are entirely covered with grand or 
 curious frescoes. That of the Sacrament — with which we 
 have at present to do — has two series of pictures, besides a 
 noble one of the Crucifixion which is walled up and apparently 
 in part destroyed, as also are other valuable works in the same 
 church. 
 
 The pictures on the right of the chapel give the history of 
 the miracle of Bolsena. The unbelieving priest is massing, and 
 in blank astonishment at the appearance of blood flowing from 
 the cup and wafer. Next to this, bishops are seen examining 
 the blood on the altar. Then the Bishop of Orvieto conveys 
 the signs of the miracle to the Pope, who goes forth and meets 
 him on the bridge of Rio Chiaro — or the Brook Clear — which 
 
230 ROME: PAGAN AND PAPAL. 
 
 is just under the walls of Orvieto, and over which one still 
 passes in journeying westward. In this last scene the white 
 
 gloves of the Pope are conspicuous. Two or three other 
 pictures complete the series. 
 
THE CATHEDRAL OF OR VIE TO. 23 1 
 
 The pictures on the left wall represent the administration of 
 the sacrament to the sick and others, depicting some curious 
 miracles. For instance, the host flies out of the priest's hands 
 into the air, while Christ appears just above it, and an angel is 
 preparing to catch it in a napkin. Again, the priest elevates 
 the host above his head, and it becomes a little Christ ; the 
 same wonder is repeated as he holds it before him ; and a 
 Christ is also seen coming out of the cup. Indeed, there is a 
 prodigality of wonders — far too many. 
 
 Among them is the history of a young Jew, a convert. He 
 is first seen at the sacrament with other lads : then his irritated 
 father seizes him violently by the neck, and throws him, head 
 foremost, into a fiery furnace. But lo ! he is miraculously 
 delivered from the furnace, and his mother, supposed appa- 
 rently to be a Christian, exhibits him to the astonished people. 
 
 But there is one thing in this remarkable series which is 
 most interesting, and is yet unnoticed in the guide books. In 
 a picture of the communion, the cup is being admi?iistered to the 
 laity. I had a careful water-colour drawing of this picture 
 made upon the spot by Professor Ferrari. 
 
 A Roman Catholic friend, who had joined me in examining 
 the pictures, looked at this one in astonishment, and ex- 
 claimed, " Why, they are giving the cup to the laity ! " 
 "Yes," said I, "I was waiting to see whether you would 
 observe it." 
 
 These pictures exhibit red wine in the cup. In the Church 
 of Rome the wine ordinarily used in the present time is as 
 frequently white as red. Yet our own people, I think, are so 
 superstitious that many of them would be shocked if they were 
 offered white wine at the Lord's Table. Tent wine — that is, 
 vino tinto, or tinted wine — is with us considered to be most 
 correct, because, as I have heard it said, it most resembles 
 blood ! 
 
 In the Orvieto pictures of the administration of the cup to 
 
232 ROME: PAGAN AND PAPAL. 
 
 laics, it is to be observed that an assistant, and not a priest, 
 stands holding in his right hand the cup, and in his left a 
 small glass vessel, or cruet, containing the wine. In one case 
 the acolyte is in the act of administering to a youth who, in 
 company with several others, is on his knees. 
 
 Now the date given as that of the completion of these 
 pictures is a.d. 1363. Up to that time, therefore, it must 
 have been usual to administer the cup to the laity in the 
 cathedral of Orvieto, the city of the Popes. 
 
 By what authority, then, did the clergy of the Church of 
 Rome withdraw the cup from the laity, after the latter had 
 received it for so many centuries ? Surely the Communion as 
 at present administered in that Church is only a mutilated rite, 
 and no sacrament at all. 
 
 Early one morning in this very same chapel, with the picture 
 of the laity partaking of the cup in full view, I saw a woman 
 receiving, not the sacrament, but the bread. Nothing could 
 have been more irreverent than the whole proceeding. While 
 looking intently at the pictures, I had not noticed that a white 
 cloth had been spread upon a desk, indicating that a com- 
 munion was about to be celebrated. A priest with an 
 acolyte came up suddenly to the altar near which I was 
 standing, and the latter commenced some form of words 
 with his eyes fixed — naturally enough, poor child ! — upon 
 the stranger. 
 
 Meantime, the priest took a host — previously consecrated — 
 out of the cibbrio or pix, gabbled some short office as fast as he 
 could, and at the same time employed his hands in folding 
 the corporal. He then took a wafer to the kneeling woman, 
 who was the only communicant. The acolyte followed him, 
 and while he administered, held a napkin under the woman's 
 chin. Then the priest returned to the altar, locked up the 
 cibdrio, made his obeisance, and, with the boy at his heels, 
 was off as quickly as he had entered. It was the most rapid 
 
THE CATHEDRAL OF ORVIETO. 233 
 
 administration I had ever seen ; the whole ceremony did not 
 occupy more than three minutes. 
 
 There were two things like fruits upon the altar. They 
 were, I suppose, the appendages called apples — hollow orna- 
 mental vessels, in the shape of fruits, which are filled with hot 
 water to warm the priest's hands in cold weather. 
 
XL. 
 
 THE CATHEDRAL OF OR VIE TO. 
 Part II. 
 
 THE hour appointed for my inspection of the reUquary 
 had passed, the service was over, the music had ceased, 
 the clergy were waiting; but of the laity a few visitors only 
 were present in the great church. 
 
 " For whom are you waiting ? " said I to the sacristan. 
 
 "For a Milor Anglais, sir," he replied, ''who appointed to 
 come and view the holy relics." 
 
 " Le voila," said I, pointing to myself, and enjoying the 
 joke, '* Je suis le Milor Anglais." 
 
 Four priests, two of whom were, I believe, canons, together 
 with four attendants bearing six candles, were awaiting us, and 
 upon our arrival at once formed into procession, and moved 
 towards the Chapel of the Sacrament. Upon entering it they 
 arranged themselves before the reliquary, and commenced to 
 intone an office. I was taken by surprise, and not a little 
 shocked ; first at the profanity of prayers to the Almighty in 
 the presence of, and in honour of, this gigantic fraud, and 
 then at the thought that I was in a way paying for these 
 prayers — a thing I had not realized. 
 
 The office was short, and at its conclusion we mounted 
 some temporary steps to a platform before the reliquary, about 
 six feet from the ground.- A priest had preceded us for the 
 
THE CATHEDRAL OF OR VIE TO. 235 
 
 purpose of unlocking the great outer case in which the silver 
 shrine is enclosed : for it is offered to the public gaze only, I 
 believe, once in the year. 
 
 There are two things to be seen : a stained piece of linen — 
 the corporal — stretched, framed, and glazed ; and the front of 
 the leliquary. The linen, perhaps fifteen inches square, is in 
 no way remarkable. The slight stains upon it may have been 
 of blood, or of anything else ; nor has the cloth the appearance 
 of age. 
 
 The priest was very courteous, and indeed, with one ex- 
 ception at Rome, I have never met with priests who were 
 otherwise. He gave .us plenty of time, and with a taper 
 enabled us to see each of the many rich enamels. This 
 occupied some fifteen minutes, and on descending I was 
 vexed to find that we had been all this time detaining 
 the other clergy, since a closing office was customary, 
 of which I had not been aware. When this had been 
 completed the ceremony was over, the doors were locked, 
 and we departed from the chapel into the body of the 
 church. 
 
 Having thus noticed the materialistic confirmation of the 
 materialistic dogma of transubstantiation by the sensuous fable 
 of Bolsena, and its connection with the famous cathedral of 
 Orvieto, let us now pass to the opposite transept formed by 
 the splendidly decorated Chapel of the Madonna, a chapel 
 which has no equal in Italy or the world. 
 
 On the vaulting are some noble works of Fra Beato Angelico, 
 among which I was especially struck with a majestic figure of 
 Christ surrounded by a group of saints, which, although it was 
 painted five centuries ago, seems as fresh as if the brush had 
 been only just laid down. 
 
 All the side walls were executed by Signorelli, an artist 
 scarcely known in England, but possessed of transcendent 
 powers. They exhibit several great and splendid compositions. 
 
236 ROME: PAGAN AND PAPAL. 
 
 excellently wrought, and of about the same date as the work of 
 Angelico. 
 
 It would be a great pleasure to dwell at length on these 
 grand conceptions of a lofty imaguiation, and to expatiate on 
 the brilliancy and rich variety of the illustrious artist's creative 
 powers as exhibited by them ; but this would be beside our 
 purpose, which is to call attention to the strange mixture of 
 Heathenism with such sublime Christian compositions as 
 The Resurrection, The Judgment, The Fall of Antichrist, and 
 The End of All Things. For while these imposing frescoes 
 are painted immediately under the vaulting of the ceiling, 
 there is just beneath them another series of pictures partly 
 allegorical — from Dante— and partly Pagan ! 
 
 Five Heathen poets have been introduced by the painter, 
 and one Heathen philosopher, Empedocles of Agrigentum — 
 that is, Girgenti in Sicily. The poets are Homer, above as 
 you enter, and Lucan on the right ; the latter is, however, I 
 suppose, now destroyed, because a Cardinal's tomb has been 
 placed against the portrait. On the other side of Homer is 
 Empedocles, a very perfect and interesting picture, the left arm 
 of the philosopher resting on the lower part of a circular 
 window, out of which he is leaning sideways, and looking 
 upwards at the picture above him, " The End of All Things." 
 
 On the left wall also are portraits of Dante and Virgil in 
 square painted frames, surrounded by many smaller illustra- 
 tions of Dante's adventures with his conductor Virgil in the 
 nether regions, and of other subjects from the Divina Conedia. 
 All kinds of strange and fabulous forms and conceits are to be 
 seen there ; it is a wonder-land of captivating romance. And 
 such is the character of the ornamentation which, with gorgeous 
 arabesques, sphinxes, and monsters, surrounds all the portraits. 
 In some of the persons introduced into these decorations 
 Signorelli seems to be illustrating the lines of the Jiifenw, when 
 in speaking of Hector, Aeneas, Lucretia, Brutus, Empedocles, 
 
THE CATHEDRAL OF ORVTETO. 237 
 
 Saladin, and other heroes and heroines who were shut up in 
 Limbo, Dante says : — 
 
 " Souls with sedate and placid eyes were there ; 
 And looks of dignity around they cast ; 
 Seldom they spake, but sweet their voices were." 
 
 And, perhaps, in selecting some of the illustrious persons 
 whose imaginary portraits he has painted, he was thinking of 
 the lines : — 
 
 " Four mighty shades I saw come us toward. 
 Their aspect neither grief nor joy betrayed. 
 ' Observe him well who bears in hand the sword ' — 
 To me the master kind his words addressed — 
 ' Before the three who cometh as their lord. 
 'Tis Homer, sov'reign poet unsurpassed. 
 Th' other is Horace of satiric fame ; 
 The third is Ovid ; Lucan is the last.' 
 
 ***** st: * 
 
 The beauteous college thus I saw unite 
 Of that lord paramount of loftiest style, 
 Who soars above the rest with eagle flight." 
 
 Scenes from their own writings embellish the portraits of the 
 Heathen poets. Thus Homer is decked with subjects from 
 his shield of Achilles ; Lucan with cameos from his Pharsalia ; 
 and so on. 
 
 Passing now to the right wall, we find ourselves face to face 
 with those acquaintances of our boyhood, Ovid and Horace. 
 Elsewhere we should have liked to see them : here we cannot 
 help exclaiming with surprise, What in the world has brought 
 you into a place of this kind? — you, Ovid, with your Art of 
 Love, and not too decent stories of Metamorphoses ; and you, 
 Horace, too often saying what you had better have left unsaid? 
 And we fancied we heard them reply just as naturally, "Ask 
 the Pope, the bishop, and the priests, who ordered us to be 
 placed here. It was none of our doing. We do not feel at all 
 
238 ROME: PAGAN AND PAPAL. 
 
 comfortable, having been accustomed to society of a different 
 kind. The place is not to our taste, as you seem to know ; we 
 told Signorelli as much, when he wanted to put us here. But 
 he said the priests liked our writings so much that they would 
 have us. So here we are doing penance." 
 
 Ovid occupies a part of the wall just opposite to Virgil ; while 
 Horace faces Dante. All the poets are represented as standing 
 at inter-columhar and open windows. 
 
 Ovid's head is crowned with laurel ; his clothing is a tunic 
 with a short black cloak thrown over it ; and his finger is 
 pointing to a passage in an open book which he holds. Four 
 small circular compositions — iondi—\n chiaroscuro, taken from 
 his works, surround him. 
 
 In one of them Pluto is seen in his gloomy chariot, beneath 
 the shadow of ^tna, anxiously gazing around to see whether 
 " earth-shaking" Typhon is working mischief in his fiery realms. 
 
 Then Venus appears, calling upon Cupid to inflame the 
 infernal king with his ardent shafts. 
 
 Quickly the consequence of the mischief follows in the rape 
 of Proserpina, fair daughter of Ceres, who is seized and hurried 
 away by her captor as she is gathering flowers in the beautiful 
 ])lain of Henna, a central spot of Sicily. Take this fable in one 
 way, and the history of the world is ever repeating it, in the 
 premature death of the young. The subject has peculiar 
 charms for the poet and the painter. Not long ago, in the 
 waiting-room of the station at Turin, I was looking at a vast 
 ])icture illustrating it, which there adorns the wall, and which 
 had this legend :— 
 
 " Dis, dark as Erebus, black as an ^thiop, with powerful 
 arms seizes the damsel fair as the morning, bright as the snows 
 of her native ^tna. She shrieks, she cries. To her mother, 
 to her companions, but most of all to her mother, she calls for 
 aid. In vain ! The grisly king hurries her away ; and flowery 
 Sicily for ever vanishes from her eyes." 
 
THE CATHEDRAL OF ORVIETO. 239 
 
 Then, as Ovid has it : — 
 
 "The gathered flowers, from her rent vesture falling, 
 Do strew the ground. " 
 
 And lovely those Sicilian flowers are, as any one who has 
 seen them can testify. I have by me a list of some which the 
 fair maid would have been likely to cull in spring, and among 
 them is the exquisite little blue iris which adorns the ruined 
 theatre at Taormania and other heights of Sicily. It grows, 
 too, in the flowery land of Palestine, especially on the vast 
 porch of the ruined Church of the Templars, at Jerusalem, 
 which has been ceded by the Turkish Government to Germany, 
 and in clearing which at the time thirty thousand ass loads of 
 rubbish were carried forth. 
 
 Next in the series of pictures comes Ceres in her chariot, 
 the mother of the maiden, seeking with torches for her lost 
 child. Possibly the origin of the fable may have been as 
 follows : — 
 
 Ceres, a queen, or potent lady with landed possessions 
 in the island, by growing corn for which Sicily was famous, and 
 the cultivation of which she probably introduced, is afterwards 
 revered as a goddess of corn. She has an only daughter who 
 dies at an early age, or, in the language of the myth, is forcibly 
 carried away by Pluto, the god of the dead. There is a grand 
 funeral ceremony at night, with a torch-procession, the Queen 
 being the prominent mourner. 
 
 It was, then, probably, by teaching the rude Sicilians the 
 method of cultivating grain that this queen, or lady, became 
 a benefactress to the island. The people sympathised with her 
 in the loss of her child, and decreed that the funeral should be 
 annually commemorated at Henna, where the daughter died. A 
 torch-procession was the principal part of the ceremony, and 
 by it for centuries the sorrows of the distracted mother were 
 kept in remembrance. 
 
240 ROME: PAGAN AND PAPAL. 
 
 Time rolled on, and a new religion was introduced ; but 
 festivals are more tenacious than faiths, and often survive them. 
 Under the new regime the feast of torches becomes the feast 
 of candles ; the name only is changed, and the festival, still 
 held in February, is called Candlemas. I have witnessed it in 
 the Pontificate of Pio Nono, when the tapers were given out by 
 the Pope himself. 
 
 While in Sicily I met with another instance of the persistence 
 with which ancient customs linger on. At Messina I saw a 
 person surrounded by a densely-packed crowd of men and 
 boys, to whom he was reciting verses of their poets. It was 
 marvellous to see the rough fisher-boys, with upturned eyes, 
 hanging on the lips of the reciter. But it was no new sight ; 
 two thousand years ago their fathers were wont to delight 
 themselves by listening to the verses of Euripides, just as they 
 do now to those of Tasso or Ariosto. Indeed, it is recorded 
 that some of the Athenian prisoners captured at Syracuse, and 
 condemned to work in the neighbouring quarries, were for 
 their powers of recitation freed from bondage, in spite of the 
 bitter hatred with which the Syracusans' regarded the invaders 
 of their island. 
 
 But, to return to the chapel of the Virgin. Its painted walls 
 are adorned wnth many other Heathen fables besides those 
 which we have mentioned, and among them with the story of 
 Orpheus, " the sacred interpreter of the gods." 
 
 There you may see the impassioned minstrel making his 
 perilous descent into Hades, and lulling the ever-watchful 
 triple-headed guardian of Pluto's realms to slumber with the 
 enchanting notes of his lyre. Now his resistless spell soothes 
 the pains of Tartarus, and anon it is stealing gently over the 
 Infernal Powers, and subduing even their pitiless hearts. 
 
 " Stem Proserpine relented, and gave him back the fair." 
 
 Then, rejoicing in the attainment of his object, he begins his 
 
THE CATHEDRAL OF ORVIETO. 241 
 
 return to the regions of day, closely followed by her for whom 
 he had dared so much. But, alas, impatient youth ! he breaks 
 the law of the grim deities ; ere the permitted time he turns to 
 look upon his Eurydice — and in a moment all is lost ; she is 
 snatched from his embrace for ever. 
 
 But how near is the sublime to the ridiculous ! Signorelli's 
 strict orthodoxy has caused him to make a ludicrous jumble, 
 and instead of representing Eurydice as vanishing away, or, at 
 least, surrounding her with evil genii — such for example as may 
 be seen on Etruscan tombs — he has introduced ecclesiastical 
 devils ! There they are, three of them, making greedy havoc 
 of the poet's love, whom they are seizing neck and limb. 
 
 In my time I have examined the devils of many a painter, 
 and must certainly pronounce these of Signorelli to be the 
 most malevolent I have ever noticed. Some of the most 
 comic — and ecclesiastical devils are often intensely comic — 
 are those in the narthex of the grand old Basilica of St. 
 Lorenzo, the Church of the Cemetery, at Rome ; they are 
 occupied in plaguing the unfortunate St. Anthony, and appear 
 to be drawing considerable amusement from their occupation. 
 Another very ludicrous person of the same class is to be seen 
 in the porch of the cathedral at Berne. He has a Swiss 
 basket upon his back, in which he is carrying off to the abode 
 of woe a doomed bishop. Still more strange — the bishop 
 looks out from the basket, and gives his professional blessing 
 to the people as he is being hurried away. 
 
 But among the various species of ecclesiastical devils, which 
 are generally either of the human or the bestial type, there 
 appears to be also a feathered tribe, living in trees like 
 birds. Montfaucon, in his Antiquities of Italy, mentions them 
 in connection with the Church of Sa. Maria at the Porta del 
 Popolo in Rome. *' In the inscription set up in the choir," 
 he says, " we have this account, which for its singularity is 
 here inserted." He then gives the original Latin of the in- 
 
 16 
 
242 ROME: PAGAN AND PAPAL. 
 
 scription, together with a translation to the following effect : — 
 "This altar was solemnly erected by Pope Paschal II. — a.d. 
 1118 — in this place by Divine inspiration, by which he soon 
 drove aw^ay the tall devils who, sitting on a nut tree — tuicis 
 arbori insidentes — cruelly insulted from thence the people as 
 they passed by — transeuntem hinc populum dire insultantes." 
 
 The inscription then goes on to state that the Church of 
 Sa. Maria was built on the site of the Pope's altar. Certainly 
 Montfaucon does not seem to be far wrong in characterizing 
 this account of "tall devils" perched upon a nut tree and 
 insulting the passers-by as singular. 
 
 There are some strange devils among the decorations of 
 Fairford Church in Gloucestershire. Among them is the 
 grimmest I have ever seen — a grand monster in painted glass 
 at the w'est end, who is called Beelzebub. Upstairs, again, 
 there is a very comical little one — smart, a beau in his way, in 
 a gay mauve mantle — walking daintily on tiptoe, and playing a 
 violin. One of his companions has a blue tail, and is wheeling 
 away a woman in a barrow to a place to which she is very 
 unwilling to go. However, she cannot help herself. The 
 barrow is two-wheeled, with eight spokes to each wheel, and 
 is particularly well made ; the woman is robed, and sits grace- 
 fully in it. 
 
 But the idea of the barrow is by no means exclusively 
 "Christian," Mrs. Hamilton Grey, in her Sepulchres of 
 Etruria, describes a tomb found at Tarquinii, and dating back 
 to some seven hundred years before Christ. In it is a figure 
 robed in white, wearing a conical white tiara, and with one 
 hand upraised apparently in the act of benediction. " Had it 
 been drawn in our days," remarks Mrs. Grey, " it might have 
 passed for the Pope." And in this same ancient tomb there 
 is also an evil genius, or Heathen devil, wheeling off a soul to 
 the judge of the dead in a hand-barrow, just as at Fairford 
 Church. Truly, men unenlightened by revelation have much 
 
THE CATHEDRAL OF ORVIETO. 243 
 
 the same ideas respecting religious matters, whether they dwell 
 in Etruria or in Gloucestershire ; whether they are now alive, 
 or passed out of the world some two or three thousand years 
 ago! 
 
 The same tomb exhibits another curious parallel to Medie- 
 valism. The soul of a person deceased is seated in a hand- 
 barrow ready to be carried off, and an evil and a good genius 
 are struggling over it, the one pushing the barrow in the way 
 in which he wishes it to go, while the other strives to impel it 
 in an opposite direction. 
 
 In the narthex of the Church of St. Lorenzo at Rome there 
 is a similar scene on a larger scale ; the devils think themselves 
 triumphant, and are capering about in delight at the prospect 
 of carrying off the sinner upon whom they have set their mind, 
 and who is none other than the Emperor Henry II. But 
 St. Laurence, the patron of the church, suddenly bethinks 
 himself of a golden cup which Henry had recently offered at 
 his shrine, and casting it into the balance turns the scale. 
 The emperor's sins kick the beam, as his merits weigh down 
 the opposite scale, and the rashly exulting devils are dis- 
 appointed of their pi"ey. 
 
 But we have digressed at too great length, and must close 
 our chapter on the Chapel of the Virgin witliout attempting 
 to describe the many other Heathen decorations of the walls. 
 
Mask from the Cathedral of Orvieto. 
 
 XLI. 
 
 THE CATHEDRAL OF ORVIETO. 
 Part III. 
 
 PASSING from the Chapel of the Virgin into the body of 
 the great church, we find this part disfigured by a 
 number of gigantic marble statues of modern date, ranged by 
 the columns along the middle aisle, and for the most part 
 executed in as bad a style as those of Bernini in St. Peter's. 
 The original decoration consisted of beautiful frescoes, ara- 
 besques, and reliefs, thoroughly Heathen in character, but 
 excellent in design and execution. 
 
 One of the statues, that of St. Paul, is a bad imitation of the 
 Farnese Hercules at Naples ! 
 
 Within the rails of the apse are two others, of life size or 
 larger, by Mochi, representing the salutation of Mary by the 
 angel. These are described in the guide books as "cele- 
 brated " ; but in neither figure is there anything to admire ; 
 indeed, I never saw anything more repulsive than the face of 
 the Virgin. " She is represented as starting from her seat at 
 the salutation of the angel, her eand grasps the chair with 
 
THE CATHEDRAL OF ORVIETO. 245 
 
 almost convulsive energy, and her countenance wears a dis- 
 agreeable expression of indignation." — Murray. 
 
 The last-mentioned feature puzzled me. I looked, and 
 looked, but could not understand that expression of anger, 
 and, probably, never should have done so had I not, when 
 staying at Bologna on my way north, gone to the public library 
 to search for De la Valle's History of the Cathedral of Orvieto. 
 The librarian politely set before me a small quarto, printed at 
 Rome in 1791, and, as I turned over its leaves, my eye rested 
 on some Latin verses which supplied the desired information. 
 They were as follows : — 
 
 ' ' Pennatum properare ducem vocemque salutis 
 Improvisa timet : nee sponsa innupta Tonantis 
 Esse velit. Thalamos fugiat, toedasque recuset 
 Ferre maritali dextra. nisi pronuba sanctos 
 Virginitas et Divus Amor jungant Hymenaeos." 
 
 Which we may, perhaps, freely render : — 
 
 ' ' Down from the stars the winged leader hastes : 
 His voice of salutation frights the ear 
 Of her astonishment. Nor will she be 
 The Thund'rer's unwed bride. Let her the bed 
 Avoid. Let her the torch refuse to bear 
 In matrimonial hand, nor yield except 
 Married Virginity and Love Divine 
 The holy wedlock join." 
 
 Here is a strange origin for Christian statuary, one of the 
 scandalous amours of Jupiter ! De la Valle, in commenting 
 upon the lines, makes no observation on the angry expression 
 with which Mary meets pennatum ducem, " the feathered 
 Mercury," alias the angel, nor does he note their Heathen 
 character. On the attitude of Mary, however, he remarks : 
 *' Her movement may best be compared to that of a Spartan 
 virgin from the antique." 
 
 This group certainly affords a fitting illustration of the 
 
246 
 
 ROME: PAGAN AAD PAPAL. 
 
 principle which is 
 
 M maintainedthrough- 
 
 ^ out the whole cathe- 
 
 ^ dralof Orvieto, nay, 
 
 g throughout the 
 
 p whole system of 
 
 J Rome. ButRoman- 
 
 M ists do not always 
 
 ^ approve of it. 
 
 = While travelling 
 
 g from Munich to 
 
 % Dresden with my 
 
 M daughter, in 1879, 
 
 g we fell in with 
 
 B Monsignor B , 
 
 g Prelate of the 
 
 ^^= Pope's household, 
 
 P who knew Orvieto. 
 
 M Upon our speaking 
 
 ^ of the Heathen 
 
 % character of the 
 
 = Cathedral, he ob- 
 " Cetie 
 
 Cathcdrak est U7i 
 
 g L/nistiajiisiiie pa- 
 
 = ga?//si:" He had 
 
 = seen it with his 
 
 g. own eyes, and was 
 
 =) able to judge for 
 
 ^ himself 
 
 And I had in- 
 
 |i tended, reader, that 
 
 ■m you to some extent 
 
 = should be enabled 
 
 = served, 
 
 71 
 
THE CATHEDRAL OF OR VIE TO. 247 
 
 to do the same, and with that view employed an ItaUan artist 
 to copy a few of the decorations. But some of his drawings 
 proved too indehcate to be retained, though I had cautioned 
 him to be careful in his selection. However, on the opposite 
 page I have given an example, from the font, of the generally 
 Heathen character of the ornamentation. 
 
 Voluptuousness mingled with sportiveness pervades the 
 whole building. Among the arabesques is a humorous but 
 improved repetition, on a small scale, of the fountain of the 
 manikin at Brussels ; also a copy of Donatello's charming 
 laughing boy, with bronze water works, which is now in the 
 IMuseum at Arezzo, and which has been imitated in "a domestic 
 fountain " to be seen in our own South Kensington Museum. 
 
 But one brilliant work of Mosechino is specially conspicuous. 
 It is a beautiful group of figures in white marble — women and 
 children — in highest relief and nearly of life size. It forms a 
 reredos, or back, to a large and prominent altar in the transept 
 looking west. I cannot enter into details : it must suffice to 
 say that the vomen are as voluptuous and enticing as skill 
 could make tliem, and are placed just before the eyes of the 
 officiating priest. 
 
 Naked youths in pairs crown the pediments of the side 
 chapels, where, not to mention sundry questionable arabesques, 
 beautiful femae forms in colour, and decolletees, help to make 
 up the ornamentation. 
 
 Such a sty'.e of decoration might be more suitable in a 
 theatre, though even there it would be highly objectionable. 
 But for a house of prayer it would be difficult to imagine any- 
 thing more ir.congruous and demoralizing. 
 
§0' f r I 
 
 Blood drops from St. Christina's feet, preser\-ed in a glass case in her c'lurch at Bolsena. 
 
 XLIL 
 
 BOLSENA. 
 
 FROM Orvieto to Bolsena is a drive of two hours, over 
 high ground commanding splendid landscapes at the 
 beginning and at the end of the journey. First one looks 
 back on the picturesque city of Orvieto, which from one point 
 bears a striking resemblance to the south-east corner of Jeru- 
 salem. And then the close of the drive reveals the lake, with 
 its blue waters and islands, on which one descends, by a wind- 
 ing road, to the poverty-stricken and rarely visited little town of 
 Bolsena, the scene of the famous miracle which we have 
 already described. 
 
 Both town and miracle are the better known for RafFaelle's 
 great picture of the latter in the stanze of the Vatican. Yet 
 the artist has not shown the slightest regard in his composition 
 either to place or person ; for as to person, he has introduced 
 into the picture his contemporary and liberal patron the war- 
 like Julius II., and as to place, he has depicted a spacious 
 and well-lighted building, whereas it is a dark half-subterranean 
 chapel belonging to an insignificant church, that of St. Chris- 
 tina, which has the credit of the transaction. 
 
BOLSENA. 
 
 249 
 
 On arriving at this church one is a little surprised to find, 
 just outside the door, a sculptured Roman sarcophagus orna- 
 mented with Bacchic figures in bold relief, and so indelicate 
 that they seem extremely unsuitable neighbours for a Christian 
 place of worship. 
 
 The chapel itself, in which the Bohemian priest was officiat- 
 ing when blood flowed from the wafer, is low, vaulted, and 
 green with damp. It contains, however, one work of art well 
 
 worthy of attention, a composition of Robbia's relating to the 
 history of Sa. Christina, and consisting of several small figures, 
 which cannot, however, be examined without the aid of lights. 
 The altar, occupying the place of one anciently dedicated to 
 Apollo, and the exact locality of the miracle, are covered by a 
 stone baldachino, or canopy, supported by four columns of red 
 marble. In front of this altar, let into it, and protected by an 
 iron grating shown in the cut, is a stone impressed with a 
 hideous pair of feet, very similar to those of the " Quo vadis " 
 
250 ROME: PAGAN AND PAPAL. 
 
 at Rome. The legend is that the feet of a certain Christian 
 lady of the neighbourhood, named Christina, were attached to 
 this stone by her persecutors, and that she was then thrown 
 into the lake. But the stone, contrary to its nature, willed not 
 to sink but to swim ; and the saint, standing upon it, was thus 
 conveyed in safety to the opposite shore, where she landed, 
 leaving the prints of her feet upon the stone as indubitable 
 evidence of the truth of the miracle. I remember to have 
 seen a duplicate of the footprints in the lower church at 
 Assisi. 
 
 Besides the blood-memorials of the miraculous wafer and cup 
 which we have already mentioned — the stains on the pavement 
 covered with a grating — there are also others kept in a gallery 
 of modern date up a flight of steps. Since, therefore, I had 
 asked to be shown everything that was to be seen, a messenger 
 was despatched to fetch the priest, who presently appeared— a 
 good-tempered dark little man. He at once robed himself, and 
 proceeded, according to custom on such occasions, to light 
 candles while the by-standers devoutly crossed themselves. 
 Next came a short office, the people kneeling, and then the 
 evidences or remains of the miracle were disclosed. They 
 were kept in a sort of press, and were revealed by the drawing 
 up of blinds. On the top of the press was a representation of 
 a large cup with blood welling abundantly from it. The relics 
 appeared to consist mainly of pieces of stained linen, on which 
 were spots said to be drops of the blood of Christ, and to ex- 
 hibit — each of them — His lineaments ! We strove to discover 
 a likeness to any human figure, but without success ; however, 
 some of those who were present affirmed that they could discern 
 it, and certainly had the general belief on their side. 
 
 In looking through the Graphic of January 7th, 18S3, lob- 
 served a curious parallel to this fancy. It was an account, by the 
 Hungarian traveller Count Szechenyl, of asyringa tree growing 
 in China which is believed to have worked many miracles, and 
 
BOLSENA. 251 
 
 on which a mandarin is said to have discovered a leaf bearing 
 a perfect portrait of Buddha. M. Hue, the Jesuit missionary, 
 also makes mention of this tree. 
 
 Another testimony to the close connection of all natural 
 religions ! To whatever race or clime they may belong, their 
 principal characteristics are ever materialism and credulity. 
 In Europe, the natural man sees a miraculous Christ in a spot 
 on a dirty piece of linen ; in Asia, he discerns an equally 
 miraculous Buddha on the leaf of a tree. 
 
 It was in 1879 that our party drove from Orvieto to Bolsena. 
 In former days I remember passing through the place on the 
 journey from Rome to Siena by the Alalle Paste when the road 
 was patrolled by soldiers on account of the brigands — even now 
 it is not particularly secure. The Austrian Envoy had just 
 been robbed of his effects, and even of his decorations, and, 
 which was still worse, his postilion had been shot through the 
 leg. This was in 1852. 
 
 The town, if one may dignify it by such a name, is situated 
 near the lake — " the great Volscian Mere " of Macaulay, and 
 the largest lake in Italy — at the bottom of a hill of unusual 
 length and steepness. A carriage and pair of horses may be 
 obtained for a visit from Orvieto at a very moderate rate — from 
 twenty to five-and-twenty francs for the day. There are some 
 curious Etruscan tombs between the two places, but off the 
 highroad, which is good though hilly. The singing of the 
 nightingales is enchanting, and reminded me of the Certosa 
 of Pavia. 
 
 Leo X., who was a sporting man, used to fish at Bolsena and 
 hunt at Viterbo, greatly shocking his Master of Ceremonies by 
 riding out of Rome in boots. On such occasions he resided, 
 not in the Castle, the picturesque ruins of whicli still remain on 
 and within the walls, but in one or other of the two lake-islands 
 where the Farnese family had villas. 
 
 The whole neighbourhood of the lake is now desolated by 
 
252 ROME: PAGAN AND PAPAL. 
 
 malaria, and, so far as population is concerned, almost a 
 desert. 
 
 When we entered the town, we were surrounded by a squalid 
 set of half-clad miserables, from whose bodies we were quickly 
 covered with — insects of provoking activity. Among them, 
 however, was one old man of a higher type, who, while I was 
 buying some coins from him, showed me a letter from his 
 daughter in London. She was the wife of a tradesman in the 
 Haymarket, and I afterwards called upon her with a message 
 from her father, and found her a well-to-do, handsome, and re- 
 spectable woman, and a great contrast to her country cousins 
 at Bolsena. 
 
 There is no hotel in the place ; the want of a railroad has 
 caused its glory to vanish, since it is no longer a considerable 
 thoroughfare. We dined in a large upstair room, at a rough, 
 strange kind of place to which our driver took us ; but we were 
 not badly entertained. I wished to taste those classic eels, for 
 eating the greatest possible quantity of which a certain Pope 
 was in the habit of preparing himself secundum artem, like an 
 old Roman ; but we were unable to procure any. There was, 
 however, an abundant supply of another fish, which the Papal 
 fisherman Leo X. — a poor successor to him of the Galilean 
 lake — must often have captured and consumed. So, with good 
 bread and excellent wine, we ate the delicate long-snouted 
 tenca^ fried as English cooks can fry neither fish nor anything 
 else — for Italians are famous for their frittura — and as we ate 
 talked of Leo X,, and longed for the pleasure of Roscoe's good 
 company. For our excellent wine we paid less than half a 
 franc a bottle, and for the remainder of our repast in proportion. 
 
 A charming drive back to our hotel at Orvieto concluded 
 a day of great enjoyment. 
 
XLIII. 
 
 BRIGANDAGE. 
 
 IN the previous chapter, mention was made of the prevalence 
 of brigandage in the neighbourhood of Bolsena in 1852. 
 It was not, however, until a recent visit to that part of the 
 country that I fully realized the insecurity of the south of Italy. 
 
 We were about to make an excursion from Orvieto, and one 
 of our party was the lady of an Italian Colonel quartered in 
 the town. When the carriage which she had kindly ordered 
 for us drove up, I was surprised to see a soldier seated on the 
 box. In reply to my inquiries she said, " The Colonel thinks 
 it will be as well for him to accompany us." The region 
 through which we drove was indeed wild, and very suggestive 
 of brigands, after they had been mentioned to us ; however, 
 nothing unpleasant occurred. 
 
 Just as we were starting the lady said, " Look down the 
 valley : you see that nice house not far from the city walls ? 
 Well, for five years its occupants have been wishing to visit 
 their estate in the neighbourhood — some eight or ten miles 
 away — but they dare not, for fear of being murdered." It was 
 a case of vendetta, as I afterwards understood. 
 
 But what the lady then told us was a still darker story. Signor 
 
 A B , a gentleman well known in the place, was 
 
 awakened from sleep one night by some men, who presented a 
 letter, which he was requested to read at once. Calling for a light, 
 he looked at it, and then, folding it up again, observed that he 
 would peruse it in the morning. " That will not do," replied the 
 messengers, '* the letter is concerned with your father, who is 
 
2 54 ROME: PAGAN AND PAPAL. 
 
 in the hands of banditti." " Indeed,'' said the son ; and, be- 
 stirring himself immediately, he read, or thought that he read, 
 the letter. " Yes," said he, " and at such a place I am to meet 
 them and pay the ransom. Let us go at once." The horses 
 were saddled, and they soon arrived at the appointed place ; 
 but no one was waiting. Again the son referred to the letter, 
 and found that he had misread it, and ridden in the wrong 
 direction. He then betook himself to the place which had 
 really been mentioned, but when he arrived on the spot the 
 time fixed for the payment of the ransom had passed, and the 
 corpse of his father lay on the ground pierced with many 
 wounds. The son, a considerable landed proprietor, has since 
 the murder been shunned by his acquaintances. 
 
 Not long after this excursion, I was journeying with my 
 daughter to Perugia. When we were near the lake — the ancient 
 Thrasymenus, the scene of the dire defeat of the Romans by 
 Hannibal — we were joined by a pleasant and intelligent French 
 woman, a Sister of Charity, who was returning from a visit to 
 her friends in Paris and on her way to Todi, where she had 
 been labouring for some sixteen years. In speaking of the 
 state of the country, she told us that she had known of six 
 recent assassinations by brigands in the neighbourhood. 
 
 There are two causes, at least, which contribute to this miser- 
 able state of insecurity. One is that the Italians do not choose 
 to recognise it. " Brigandage, sir ! " said an Italian senator 
 to me sixteen years ago — he was a Prince Somebody, but I 
 forget his name, whom I was in the habit of meeting daily at 
 a table dlwte in Florence, and who knew England well — 
 " Brigandage, sir ! There is no such thing either in Italy or 
 Sicily." Could one have conceived such perversity ! 
 
 Another cause is the rarity of capital punishment — the miser- 
 able pusillanimity, or softness, or whatever you like to call it, 
 — which persists in giving the colouring of extenuating circum- 
 stances even to the most atrocious murders. Man will be wiser 
 
BRIGANDAGE. 
 
 255 
 
 than God ; therefore, man must suffer. The primeval law of 
 the Almighty is, " Whoso sheddeth man's blood, by man 
 shall his blood be shed." The nations, and Italy among them, 
 say, " Nay, it shall not be so " : and the result is that unre- 
 strained murder stalks fearlessly abroad. 
 
 One is glad to see this suicidal opposition to God given up 
 in some parts of the world. Three of the Swiss Cantons have 
 lately repealed their rebellious law against capital punishment. 
 Experience has taught them that to spare the murderer's life 
 does not conduce to the welfare of society. But in our own 
 country the development of a mawkish feeling, which amounts 
 to rebellion against God, is deplorable. Scarcely a malefactor, 
 no matter how atrocious his crime, is sentenced to death with- 
 out a number of people, wiser than the laws, than the admini- 
 strator of the laws, and than God Himself, the Author of laws, 
 raising a mischievous clamour for a reversal of the sentence, 
 and so doing their best to frustrate the great Legislator's method 
 of removing the guilt of blood from the earth. 
 
 We add a i&w particulars of Italian brigandage to illustrate 
 the relations which have subsisted between it and the Romish 
 Church. 
 
 A clever French writer, M. De Santo-Domingo, travelled in 
 Italy about the year 1820, and, during his stay in Rome, moved 
 in high ecclesiastical society. He was a strong Gallican and 
 good Roman Catholic, but not a Papist. Consequently, being 
 a firm partisan of the Bourbons, he does not hesitate to cast 
 severe blame upon Pius VII. for, in effect, dethroning that 
 family by consenting to officiate at the coronation of Buona- 
 parte. This he does in his work called Roman Tablets, which 
 is a collection of facts and anecdotes of manners, society, and 
 government at Rome ; and is of so caustic a character in its 
 treatment of the upper classes there, that on his return to Paris 
 the author was prosecuted before the Cour Royal — apparently 
 at the instigation of the Pope's nuncio — fined, and imprisoned. 
 
256 ROME: PAGAN AND PAPAL. 
 
 The book was suppressed ; but it had already run through 
 several editions, making a great stir upon the Continent, and 
 had been translated into English — London, 1826. 
 
 In arraigning the government of the Pope, he observes in 
 regard to brigandage, one of the crying evils of the day : 
 " Travellers will testify to the truth of my assertion that almost 
 every brigand possesses a house, a piece of ground, some cattle, 
 and a lawful wife. They obey a chief who exercises over them 
 the power of a dictator ; they also experience all the advantages 
 which result from absolute power. They are dressed in a 
 uniform manner, and wear suspended on their breasts a silver 
 heart, containing some holy relic, and bearing on the outside, 
 in relief, the image of the Virgin." 
 
 Our author then gives a short account of the robber-bands 
 which ravaged the country during the time of Pius VII., whose 
 Pontificate lasted from 1800 to 1823. 
 
 Their fame was, I suppose, fairly diffused ; at any rate, a 
 vivid remembrance of my boyish days is connected with sundry 
 popular prints, exposed in the shop windows, and representing 
 combats between the Pope's soldiers and the brigands — ^for 
 even these usually too good friends were wont sometimes to 
 quarrel, and in the conflicts which ensued — if one may trust the 
 prints — the women took no small part, manfully aiding their 
 husbands. 
 
 One of these bands was under the leadership of Diecinove, a 
 wretch who signalized himself by his horrible cruelties, craving 
 more for blood than for gold, and subjecting his victims to pro- 
 longed tortures before he killed them. There was not a place 
 in the environs of Rome where he had not spread terror and 
 carnage. This monster proposed an armistice with the Papal 
 government, and his offer was eagerly accepted. 
 
 " As soon as he and his companions had received from the 
 holy Father their pardon as assassins, and their absolution as 
 Christians, they resolved, now that they were protected by the 
 
BRIG A NBA GE. 257 
 
 shield of impunity, on visiting the theatre of their exploits to 
 view again the villages still reeking with the blood which they 
 had shed. This they did, and, since they abstained from 
 murder and pillage, demanded money on their departure from 
 each place as a reward for their lenity : nor had any one the 
 rashness to refuse them. Thus they continued to rob without 
 risk, and in a manner under the protection of the government, 
 which was fully informed of their conduct, but was willing 
 nevertheless, to grant the same amnesty to other bands of 
 assassins. 
 
 " The chiefs Masocco and Garbarone, again, displayed an 
 infernal genius in the invention of new crimes, and on my 
 arrival at the city of Fonnino, their ferocious exploits were the 
 one theme of conversation. The Pontifical government, having 
 failed to cai)ture these monsters, did not blush to treat with 
 them as between nation and nation, and the Cardinal Secretary 
 of State was deputed to carry on the negotiations. He had an 
 interview with Masocco and his lieutenants near Terracina, and 
 these men would have been content to receive the pensions 
 and lucrative employments which were offered to them. 
 
 " But Garbarone, the other chief, not finding the conditions 
 sufficiently advantageous, redoubled- his depredations, and 
 abandoned himself to his ferocious disposition. Again depu- 
 tations were sent from the court of Rome, with still more 
 seducing offers, to entice the banditti to accept a pardon and 
 the remission of all their sins. Garbarone received the pro- 
 posals with disdain, and answered them by fresh outrages, so 
 that all that part of the country was filled with cries of distress, 
 
 *' At last the rector of Terracina, a man greatly esteemed for 
 his piety and virtue, armed himself with a crucifix, and went in 
 search of the brigands. He succeeded, partly by his eloquence, 
 but more especially by his offers, in persuading them ; and 
 then, not content with his first success, wished also to reform 
 them, and with this view conducted them to his college, where 
 
 17 
 
258 ROME: PAGAN AND PAPAL. 
 
 the children of the richest famiUes in the neighbourhood were 
 being educated. At first the banditti showed great zeal in all 
 pious exercises ; the soul of the good rector melted with tender- 
 ness at their penitent behaviour, and he confessed them and 
 administered the sacrament to them repeatedly. 
 
 " Suddenly the scene changed. After having fully informed 
 themselves of the resources of the families to which the children 
 with whom they were living belonged, they, one night, carried 
 them all off to the mountains. The rector was absent, and on 
 his return discovered too late that he had introduced wolves 
 into the fold. 
 
 " The evening before the occurrence of this catastrophe at 
 Terracina, I stayed there for some hours, and, on my arrival at 
 Valatri, took a seat in the public conveyance for Rome, and 
 entered into conversation with Signor Fasani, a Roman, who 
 spoke much of his happiness in his son. 
 
 " When we reached Rome, Signor Fasani and myself took 
 lodgings in the same hotel. The next morning he entered 
 my room, pale with anguish. ' Yesterday,' said he, ' when I was 
 speaking to you of my son, he had been carried off by a horde 
 of assassins.' Before I could reply, a letter was brought in, and 
 he started as he recognized the handwriting of his son. The 
 message was as follows : — ' My dear father, do not be unhappy. 
 I am in good health, and among very good people, who take 
 the greatest care of me, and pay me the greatest attention : 
 but if you do not send me two thousand crowns immediately, 
 they will kill me.' 
 
 " Hastily collecting all the money he could, he sent it off, 
 with a promise that the remainder of the stipulated sum should 
 be forwarded as quickly as possible ; and the fathers of the other 
 children, who had received similar letters, did the same. The 
 brigands released the greater part of their prisoners, and re- 
 tained but three, of whom one was twelve years old, another 
 thirteen, and the third fourteen. Signor Fasani's son was one 
 
BRIGANDAGE. 259 
 
 of these three, and the following is his narrative : — ' When the 
 robbers, after having taken us from the seminary, found that 
 we could not walk as rapidly as themselves, they lifted us upon 
 their shoulders, and did not halt until they had reached the 
 mountains. Oa the way they met with some shepherds, whom 
 they ordered to bring two fat sheep. After the repast, of which 
 we partook, they recited a short prayer, in which they returned 
 thanks to St. Antonio for having assisted them to carry out 
 their plans. Then one of them read a book, in which, among 
 other histories,' was that of an adventurer called Ricardo, whose 
 extraordinary enterprises excited in them transports of admira- 
 tion. Afterwards they kissed the image of the Virgin, which 
 they always carry about their person, and lay down to sleep. 
 ... I had now seen twelve of ray companions released ; myself 
 and two others only remained, and were kept tied together by 
 the arms with a cord. The second in command of the band, 
 observing that I was uneasy in mind, said, " Fasani, keep up 
 your spirits : we are thinking of putting an end to your cap- 
 tivity. Meanwhile, preach us a sermon on death." I obeyed 
 as well as I was able, little thinking that I was pronouncing 
 my own funeral oration. When I had finished, the brigand 
 dragged us to a little distance among a group of rocks which 
 overhung a precipice, drew his poniard, and buried it in the 
 bosoms of my companions. In their fall the cord which tied 
 us together pulled me also to the ground, and I fell covered 
 with their blood. I threw myself at the feet of the assassin, 
 implored his pity, and begged him in the name of St. Antonio 
 to spare my life. All this took place with the rapidity of 
 lightning. He suspended his poniard, and appeared to hesi- 
 tate. " Do not stab him ! " cried the chief, " it will bring us 
 ill luck : he has invoked St. Antonio. And he is the last. Let 
 us offer a votive picture to St. Antonio." 
 
 '"I was then unbound: the chief spoke kindly to me, and 
 gave me a ring, and this pass.' 
 
26o ROME: PAGAN AND PAPAL. 
 
 "The child showed me the pass, of which the following is 
 an exact copy : — 
 
 " ' Every detachment of the company is commanded not to 
 stop the bearer, Fasani. 
 
 The Trinity, Virtue, 
 Fidelity. 
 Ant: Mattai 
 Ed : Aless : jMassaroni.' 
 
 " If,'' the French narrator very justly observes, " the lad had 
 simply invoked the name of God, he would have been mur- 
 dered. By employing the name of St. Antonio he was 
 saved ! 
 
 " Another head of a company of brigands was Bardone. 
 This man was trained from childhood by his mother to deeds 
 of blood, and no single act of generosity can be recorded to 
 his honour. On the contrary, he added refinement to his 
 cruelty. After he had exhausted all possible crimes, he wished 
 to abdicate the dictatorship of the mountains, and made an 
 offer to the Pope to do so provided he received as compensa- 
 tion a furnished house, a pension, and a public employment, 
 with a supply of absolutions and indulgences. The Holy 
 Father assented to his conditions, and the robber-chief made 
 his entry into the capital of the Christian world, surrounded 
 by a curious multitude, who felt a keen interest even in his 
 murders. For at Rome — and alas ! of late in England also — 
 men generally transfer to the murderer the pity which is due 
 to the victim. Place one of them between an assassin and the 
 assassinated, and he will at once sympathise with the former, 
 and say, ' Poor fellow 1 he has killed a man ! ' 
 
 " Bardone found a house prepared to receive himself and 
 his wife near the bridge of St. Angelo, and the office of prison- 
 keeper was assigned to him. He is still living in the same 
 place, and walks in the streets of Rome with as much uncon- 
 
BRIGANDAGE. 26 1 
 
 cern as if he were an honest man. Why should he not? Has 
 not the holy water cleansed him from all the blood with which 
 he was polluted ? Can he feel remorse after having received 
 from the Sovereign Pontiff the absolution of all his crimes ? 
 
 " A number of his brethren in crime enjoy the same advan- 
 tage of citizenship. Four of them lately presented themselves 
 at the door of the Cardinal Secretary of State's carriage to 
 demand an augmentation of pay, threatening that, if their 
 demands were not conceded, they would return to the moun- 
 tains. The Cardinal promised them everything. 
 
 *' And thus," observes our author, " Rome has again become 
 what it was at its origin under Romulus, an open asylum for 
 robbers. In this respect the Pope resembles Romulus ; the 
 latter, however, founded only a profane city. But by what 
 fatality is this place, where the religion supremely, excellent 
 above all others (?) has established its throne, become the 
 rendezvous of ruffians, brigands, and the most atrocious 
 assassins, the receptacle of all the vices most degrading to 
 humanity, the common sewer of the most filthy depravity ? " 
 — Roman Tablets. 
 
 This is indeed strong language for a confirmed Roman 
 Catholic to use, and it needs no further comment from us. 
 
XLIV. 
 
 THE PERSECUTING SPIRIT OF ROME. 
 
 " T T 7"HY, you are a thorough persecutor!" said an acquaint- 
 
 V V ance of mme to a young clergyman who had been 
 
 expressing himself strongly on the subject of intolerance. 
 
 " Yes," was the reply, " I am ready to burn, or to be burned." 
 
 Such a feeling is, I suppose, common enough to the natural 
 man. Whatever his convictions may be, he is disposed, if he 
 has the power, to force them upon others, and, should he meet 
 with resistance, is often irritated by it to such a pitch of fury 
 that he is ready for deeds of fiendish cruelty. There is nothing 
 more terrible than the odiicin theologicum ; nothing more unlike 
 the love of Christ ; nothing which more plainly illustrates that 
 profound knowledge of the human heart which led Satan to 
 say, " Ye shall be as God." 
 
 And in this point there is the closest resemblance between 
 Pagan and Papal Rome. How cruelly the former dealt with 
 Christianity as soon as she discovered its true nature we 
 have learnt from our childhood : the Ten Persecutions are a 
 household word. But were Trajan or Diocletian worse perse- 
 cutors than some of the Popes and the monarchs and prelates 
 who followed their example ? Did the gardens of Nero present 
 a more atrocious spectacle than the Quemadura di la Cross ? 
 was the Colosseum more cruel than the innumerable torture- 
 chambers of the Inquisition? Nay, in this point, as in so 
 many others, Pagan and Papal Rome are in perfect agreement. 
 
 As a specimen of the persecuting spirit of the latter, we may 
 quote a passage from Pascal the younger. In his Cases of 
 Conscience that writer is urging upon good Roman Catholics 
 
THE PERSECUTING SPIRIT OF ROME. 263 
 
 the duty of denouncing to the Inquisition any of their kinsmen 
 or relatives who may be suspected of heresy, and by way of 
 encouragement gives them the following example : — 
 
 " Year after year the people of Italy and Spain are sum- 
 moned to kneel before the altar of St. Ferdinand of Castile, 
 and to bless God for ' the model king ' who, when a heretic 
 was burned, came forward, and with his own royal hands 
 heaped fagots upon the pile." 
 
 This fact is also mentioned in the Roman Breviary, and is 
 thus commended : — 
 
 "In him — Ferdinand — the virtues of a king shone out 
 brightly — magnanimity, clemency, love of justice, and, above 
 all, zeal for the Catholic faith, and a burning desire to protect 
 and propagate its religious worship. He showed this espe- 
 cially by the vigour with which he pursued heretics. He 
 never allowed them to exist in any part whatever of his 
 dominions. And when they were discovered, he himself with 
 his own hands carried the fagots to burn them." — Breviarium 
 Romaiium, Roma, 1843. See Feast of St. Ferdinand III., 
 on the 5th of June. 
 
 Such are the models which Rome lifts up for imitation, such 
 the persons whom she delights to canonize. 
 
 However, another Spaniard, Cyprian di Valira, tells us of a 
 nobleman of Valladolid who surpassed even this " blessed 
 example." For he denounced his two daughters to the In- 
 quisition ; and, when they had been condemned, asked and 
 obtained permission to furnish fagots for the pile from his own 
 forests. At the execution, after he had seen the victims safely 
 chained to the stake, he kindled with his own hand the fire 
 which was to consume his children ! 
 
 But since we have been quoting examples of Spanish 
 bigotry, my readers may, perhaps, be interested in the follow- 
 ing extract from the Daily News of May 15th, 1869. It was 
 given to me by Mr. A. Guinness, who has recently authenticated 
 
264 ROME: PAGAN AND PAPAL. 
 
 it at the office of the paper, and relates to the famous, or rather 
 infamous, Quemadura di la Cross, or Burning Place of the 
 Cross, at Madrid : — 
 
 " While the Cortes were debating upon religion, the workmen 
 of the corporation of Madrid were laying bare one of the most 
 conclusive historical records of the awful deeds committed in 
 its name by the fanatics of olden times, who sought to per- 
 petuate Catholic unity by the destruction of all who opposed 
 it. I allude to the time of the Inquisition, when the Church 
 of Rome believed that the best way to put down error was to 
 burn the heretics. In making some new streets it became 
 necessary to cut through the spot where tradition recorded 
 that the burnings of the Inquisition used to take place, and 
 which has always gone by the name of the ' Quemadura de la 
 Cross,' or ' Burning-place of the Cross.' 
 
 " These excavations have not only confirmed tradition as to 
 the spot, but have revealed something of the sad and cruel 
 deeds themselves. The remains of the fires have been exposed 
 in regular layers of long black bands, some of them 150 feet 
 in length, and of varying thicknesses, with the spaces between 
 them, which are from one to two feet, filled in with earth. A 
 new road had been cut right through the spot, at a level of 
 some twenty or thirty feet, and the cutting thus eftected having 
 been neatly faced leaves the original sandstone and clay 
 formation on each side like a wall. There the black bands 
 I have alluded to are distinctly seen, and at first sight seem 
 like geological strata. There is, however, nothing of the coal 
 formation in the hills on which Madrid is built. It is 2,400 
 feet above the level of the sea, and the formation is exclusively 
 sandy limestone. One must seek in other than geological 
 causes the presence of these black bands or layers. They are 
 the veritable remains of the Inquisition fires — pulverised and 
 blackened earth and coal, greasy even yet with human grease. 
 Pieces of burnt clothing, calcined bones, and partially burnt 
 
THE PERSECUTING SPIRIT OF ROME. 265 
 
 hair have been taken out. All Madrid has been to the spot, 
 and thousands have carried away some of the black mass itself, 
 or of the cruel records found in it. 
 
 "To-day's Imparcial, speaking of it, says : — ' It is the place 
 where Catholics, pious and bewitched monarchs, permitted 
 rational human creatures of all ages and conditions, and of 
 both sexes, to be burnt alive, the victims of implacable In- 
 quisitors, slippery monks, and impious defenders of the faith, 
 as those executioners of human thought called themselves. It 
 is where that unjust and dark Tribunal did its work, where 
 they caused men and women, boys and girls, accused of 
 sacrilege, heresy, compacts with Satan, and such like, to 
 breathe their last in the midst of horrible torments. There 
 the coal whose remains we now see, after being blessed by the 
 Dominican fathers, burnt all who did not think or believe as 
 the king and the monks thought or believed, or who would 
 not serve the interests of tyranny, royal or clerical. There, in 
 the bands one over another, in the manner of geological strata, 
 we see, mixed up with fatty black earth, pulverised remains of 
 muscles consumed by the live coal, calcined bones, remains of 
 garments singed by the flames, halters stiff with coagulated 
 blood, locks of hair imperfectly burnt — irresistible witnesses to 
 the fact that brothers of ours expired amidst the flames, their 
 hearts beating with energetic protests against men worse than 
 hyaenas, judges of perfidious heart and granite soul, who con- 
 demned them to die amidst agonies without number, and in 
 the name of Christ delivered them to those fires.'" 
 
 Thus, while in the land of Assyria, in response to the efforts 
 of Rassam, Smith, and other successors of Layard, earth was 
 giving up her long-buried witnesses to the truth of the Old 
 Testament histories — at this same time the hands of labourers 
 at Madrid were laying bare proofs of cruel outrage perpetrated 
 in the name of Christ upon innocent persons by the most 
 terrible secret tribunal which the world has yet seen. 
 
XLV. 
 
 MODERN JESUITISM, 
 
 IN Pagan times the great opposition to Christianity was 
 carried on by the secret societies of the initiated, who at 
 first tried to stamp out the new religion by persecution, and 
 then, more successfully, to corrupt it by foisting themselves 
 among its teachers and counsellors. 
 
 A striking parallel is found in the secret society of the 
 Jesuits — that indefatigable Order which undoubtedly saved the 
 Romish Church from destruction at the period of the Reform- 
 ation, and has ever since proved the chief stay and strength 
 of the system of disguised Paganism which we have been 
 endeavouring to expose. But energetic as its members showed 
 themselves to be in times that are past, it is probable that they 
 were never more so than in the last few years. To their exer- 
 tions we may refer the fact that the tide of Popery is again 
 setting in upon the Protestant countries of England, America, 
 and Germany. 
 
 Some five-and-twenty years ago a priest, in the course of 
 conversation with an English lady at Teneriffe, remarked, — 
 " Your nation will soon lose its Protestantism, and return to the 
 bosom of the true Church. In about twenty years the change 
 will be in rapid progress, and I will tell you how you may know 
 that it is going on. You will see crosses put up everywhere — 
 in your churches, in your churchyards, and in your houses." 
 
 Alas ! the sign is indisputably before our eyes, and there is 
 too much reason to fear that the prediction is proving true. 
 
 With that patient persistence which would be likely to 
 
MODERN JESUITISM. 26/ 
 
 characterize highly-educated men, trained to regard their indi- 
 vidual efforts as a mere contribution to the action of a vast and 
 skilfully-directed organization engaged in carrying out a plan 
 which will avowedly require many years for its accompUshment, 
 the Jesuits have worked on. They have gradually secured a 
 great influence over the Press ; they have become clergymen 
 and ministers of various denominations, and whenever, in such 
 positions, it did not seem advisable to infuse their own tenets 
 into their teaching, they have been content to be orthodox for 
 the sole purpose of spreading that doctrine of tolerance and 
 Christian charity which is ever upon their lips, until they have 
 accumulated sufficient power to enforce obedience to their own 
 iron tyranny. For they ever recognize the fact that it is as 
 important for their object to attenuate Protestant feeling, and 
 to enfeeble Protestant organization, as it is to propagate their 
 own views. Nor, it is to be feared, are they unmindful of that 
 rule of I heir Order which directs them to spread revolutionary 
 sentiments, and to encourage sedition and anarchy, in those 
 countries in which the supremacy of the Pope is not recognized. 
 Hitherto the British empire has been their great obstacle, but 
 the result of their labours may now be seen in every part of it," 
 both at home and in the colonies and dependencies. 
 
 We cannot, however, in this book enter into the details of 
 their history ; but before dismissing the subject would just point 
 to the remarkable parallel between the Jesuit revival in Europe, 
 about A.D. 1600, and the so-called Catholic revival which is now 
 vigorously progressing in England. 
 
 The Jesuits, we know, were the chief agents in rolling back 
 the tide of spiritual light which flowed from the Reformation ; 
 and principles identical with theirs, employed first by Dr. Pusey 
 and the Oxford Tractarians, and since by the whole body of 
 the sacerdotal clergy, have in our own country opposed, and to 
 a considerable extent checked, the flow of evangelical truth 
 which some forty years ago was bidding fair to cover the land. 
 
268 ROME: PAGAN AND PAPAL. 
 
 In both cases the spiritual revival was counteracted by a 
 Catholic revival. 
 
 But let facts speak for themselves. About forty years ago, 
 Mr. Dodsvvorth, who, more honest than his fellows, openly left 
 the Church of England for that of Rome, wrote as follows to 
 his friend Dr. Pusey : — 
 
 "You have led us on to that Church system of which Sacra- 
 mental grace is the life and the soul. By your constant practice 
 of administering the doctrine of penance ; by encouraging 
 auricular confession, and giving priestly absolution; by teaching 
 the propitiatory sacrifice of the Eucharist, and the adoration of 
 Christ really present upon the altar ; by your introduction of 
 Roman Catholic books, rosaries, crucifixes, and devotion to the 
 five wounds ; by seeking to restore monastic life — I say by 
 teaching and practice you have done much to revive among us 
 the system eminently called Sacramental." — DodswortJi s Letters 
 to Pusey. Pickering, 1850. 
 
 " Done much," indeed ! Every doctrine and practice men- 
 tioned by Mr. Dodsworth is in direct opposition to the Articles 
 of the Church of England. Yet it was through the persistent 
 use and propagation of them by a clergyman, under oath at the 
 time to believe and teach those Articles, that the " Catholic 
 revival " sprang into life and grew in the Church of England ! 
 
 Whether Dr. Pusey, and other leaders of the movement, 
 actually belonged to the Society of Loyola or not, will perhaps 
 never be disclosed until He comes " Who will both bring to 
 light the hidden things of darkness, and make manifest the 
 counsels of the heart." 
 
XLVL 
 
 CONCLUSION. 
 
 WE must now, for the present at least, bring our subject 
 to a close. Of prepared material we have, indeed, 
 sufficient for several additional chapters, but this is an age of 
 brevity, and enough has been said to show that the transition 
 from Paganism to Popery effected but little change in the prin- 
 ciples and practice of Rome, and left her religion much the 
 same as it was before, save that Christian names and terms 
 were now given to the Heathen deities and rites. 
 
 Would that the eyes of Englishmen could be opened to the 
 fact ; sturdy efforts might then, perhaps, be put forth to coun- 
 teract the sleepless propagandism by which our land is being 
 filled with Popish churches, monasteries, convents, and schools. 
 And alas ! the evil is not confined to our land : in the United 
 States of America, Rome is making even more rapid progress, 
 so that some statesmen are beginning to feel alarm at the 
 possibility of her power becoming paramount. If, again, we 
 turn to Germany, the prospect is still gloomy : for we find that, 
 after a desperate and ineffectual struggle often years' duration, 
 Prince Bismarck is virtually surrendering to the Pope. Every- 
 where in the so-called Protestant countries Rome seems to be 
 triumphing ; while in other parts of Christendom, where she is 
 better known, her influence is gradually yielding to the pressure 
 of Secularism. 
 
 What shall the end of these things be ? Earth has need of 
 her rightful King, and Christians should pray more earnestly, 
 " Come, Lord Jesus ! " 
 
2/0 ROME: FAG AN AND PAPAL. 
 
 But in preparing to meet Him, let us take heed that we fall 
 not into the errors of human religion, and remember that it is 
 no mere Church-holiness which we need : it is not that which 
 is made to consist in obedience to certain rules of man's inven- 
 tion, or in submission to some human system ; not that which 
 is derived from membership with one church or another ; not 
 that which deals with meats, drinks, saints' days, Lent, seasons, 
 hours, priests, altars, and buildings made with hands. 
 
 Such things pertain to man's method of holiness, to the 
 holiness of the Scribes and Pharisees, of which Christ teaches 
 that, unless ours exceeds it, we shall in no wise enter the 
 Kingdom of Heaven. But God's method sweeps them all 
 away, and directs us for the attainment of holiness to two 
 things only, to the Holy Word, and to the Holy Spirit, Who 
 can apply that Word so as to make us thereby believers in 
 Christ Jesus, and members of His holy and invisible Church, 
 nay, members of His own body, of His flesh and of His bones. 
 And if we be thus created anew, sin is washed away, and we 
 have the unspeakable privilege of living for our Lord now, the 
 joy of knowing that nothing can separate us from the love of 
 Christ, and the certainty that we shall shortly enter the gates of 
 glory, and dwell in the golden city for ever. For did not our 
 Saviour pray — 
 
 " Fatlier, I will that they also, whom Thou hast given Me. be with Me 
 where I am ; that they may behold My glory which Thou hast given Me : 
 for Thou lovedst Me before the foundation of the world " ? 
 
 Hazell, Watson, and Viney, Printers, London and Aylesbury. 
 
Crown %vo^ cloth, -J a. 6d. 
 
 A HISTORY OF THE JEWS IN ROME. 
 
 B.C. i6o— A.D. 604. 
 
 By E. H. HUDSON, 
 
 Attlhoj- of " The Life and Times of Louisa, Queen of Prussia," 
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 the way in which the purer theology and loftier morals of the 
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 of His Time ; 4. The Sources of the Gospel History. Having thus 
 described His relation to ancient and contemporary history, the author 
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 ness derived from a visit to the Holy Land. The result is a work 
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