The Express.
London, England, 1851-01-25 00:00:00

LITERATURE.

Dasiusge wire tee nsersilitiew ; w, Papal Rome, Aer
prime', sod her Josmto ; with logiortant DiSCIOMIti
By the Rey. 014CUITO ACEILLI, Mil, VMS',
sad Ce.
Dr. Achilli has many titles to be en authority on
an that relates to the Inquisition. He is a Roman; a
mock of the Dominican order, from which the inquisi-
ton are taken; he has even been appointed a sub-in-
Inquisitor, and as such became acquainted with many
secrets of the irstitntion; and, last of 311, he has been
tried in its secret chamber, and bas twice lain in Its
dungeons. The last imprisonment of the doctor awak-
ened great sympathy in this his adopted country,
from which strenuous efforts were made to procure
his release, and when a friendly stratagem placed
him beyond the walls of St. Angelo, every English-
man rejoiced.
The creatures of the papacy had well calculated
the influence which the story of this sufferer would
exercise in Eogland, and set to work to diminish its
effect. For a Wog time it had been pre'ended that
no icqoisition exieted in the nineteenth century. The
entrance made into its dens at the oulbreak of the
Roman revolution, when its gaoler', dungeons, and
engines were set in the light of day, destroyed
thispretetce. When Achilli came forward to relate
his experience of the "Holy Office," it was therefore
Leftism to represent him as a man of vicious life,
and new.rtby of credit. The doctor nicotine, as an
instance of the reciprocity between the Inquisition
and expo tent of Rome, that Dr. Wieeman, then
looking for a cardinal's hat, offered himself for this
duty w tk, and performed it by writing, in the
Dublin Rer&re, an article in which every possible and
impossible crime is imputed to its subject. Happily
that article contained its own refutation. At the very
time when, aceordieg to Wieemen, Dr. Achilli should
have been wallowing in vice, he was on good terms
with all the bishops, and appointed by them to hew
coefresione, received letters from them requesting his
services, and was appointed to preach before the
court at Naples. In Naples it would have sufficed
to call the man heretic in order to pets eats him. We
accept it as a tribute to our protestant morality, that
it was a false charge of immoral conduct which was
chosen for assailing Dr. Achilli in England. In truth,
could his revilers condemn him, they would only con-
demn themselves, for Dr. Aoeilli has beers more than I
a priest among them. Those under whose eyes he
lived toads him a prior and visitor of his order, a chief
professer of theology, and vicar of the master of the
Sacred Palace, besides employirg him inceseaetly
in
offices of tesponsiblity and charaver. No ; because,
when young, he quizzed their 'Alio, riiiceled their
ignortice, and declined to believe in the saintship of
Gregory VII.; because, when elder, be saw through the
imposture of clerical goverment, masked by affected'
concern for religion, have the inquisitors set Dr.
Wiseman to denounce Achilli in the Spanish chapel,
and vilify him in the pages of a review.
By " Dealings with the lequisition" Dr. Achilli
WAN his personal acquaintances with its workings,
whether direct or indirect, remote or domestic, in
England or at Rome; and that he is well able to speak
en this subject, let the first extract show :

wire MIJOINIED TO Ditguhnell HSI& bOX.
I will here relate a fact whkh it always paine me to
Isla to 'and, and which. until the present occasion, I
have never spoken about. During ray residence at Viterbo,
my native town, where I wee public professor and teacher
Ii the church di Wadi, 1 er. s one day applied to by a
lady, of prepossessing eppearance, whom I then saw for the
Lest time. She requested, with much eagerness, to see me
in the sacristy) ; sad se I entered the spartmeut where she
was wai•.ing i,r me, she begged the weenie to leen us
alone, and, soddenly elosiag the door, presented a moving
spectacle to my epee. Throwing oil her bonnet, and letting
(&ose to a moonlit her bog sad beautiful tresses, the lady
fell upon her knee before me, arid gave vent to her grief
in ahundseee of miens and tears. Os my endenouriog to
eacour.oge her, tad to prrutde her to rise sad enfold her
osiod to me, she at length, en a vain broke& by sobs, thus
"diens. d me
"No, lather, I will never rise from this posture unites
you first promo.: to pardon me my heavy transgroesiou."
Although much younger than herself, She addressed MO
as her father.)
" Signora." retitled I, "it belongs to Clod to pardon oar
trastegresscos. If you have is any way injured me, en for
I am knives you ; ton I confals I hen no cane of
complaint agaien you, nit* whom, indeed, I bate not the
pleasure of beiag nquoioted."
" I have been guilty of a greet sin, for which no orient
will grant mo absoluutia tanks, you will beforehand remit
it to me"
You must explain r unelf more Fully ; as yet I have
no ides of what you "Mole w. •'
"It n. now chest a year since I last received elnelutios
hem my confessor; end the last few rigs he has kelpid
soe entirely his mince, telling sae that lam dammed. I
have tried when, and all tell me the man thing. One,
hewn. r, has lately Wonted me that if I wish to be saved
and parioneel I must apply to you, who, after the Pepe,
are the only one who can grant mo absolution."
"Signora, there is some mioake here; explain yourself.
Of what description is your sin 1"
" It is a sin ogainst the Holy Office."
" Well, but I have nothing to do with the Holy Office."
"Howl are you not lather Achilli, the vicar of the
Holy thtios 1"
" Yon hove beau misinformed, Signori; I am Acbilli,
the deputy master of the Hely Palace, not office; you any
see my name, with this title, prefixed to all works that
are printed hen, in Ulu of that of the muter himself.
1 anon pot that neither my principal nor myself have
any euthoei'y in eases that regard the
The good lady hereupon roes from her knees, wiped the
tears item her eyes, arranged her heir, and asked leave to
relate her saes tome, and having at dawn, began es follows •
"It is not quite & year since, Wit I was going, about the
time tit Baiter, aceordiog to my tonal custom, to confess my
ties to the parish priest. lie being well acquainted with
myself and al my fatally, began to interrogate me respecting
my Mon, the only one I have, a young man twenty-four years
of age, full of patriotic ardrar, but with little respect for the
preen. It happened that I observed t. the curate, nee,
notweitatending my remonstrances, my eon was in the titbit
of saying that the bushiest of a priest was a complete decep-
tion. cnu that the bead of all the impostors was the Pope
himself. Would I hod told him.. The curate would
heir no further. 'lt is your duty,' said he, 'to denounce
your son to tie ISqUildtloll.. 'Magill, what I felt at this
inhalation. To be the accuser of my own son. ' Such is
the cue' observed he, there is no help for it. I cannot
she hre you, neither can ate one else, until the thing is done.
And int eel from every one else I have had the sew refusal.
It is now twelve months since I have received absolution,
and en this ;orient year many mi•fortunes have be
Whin me. Ten* dap, ego I tried again, end promised, In
order that I might receive absolution, that 1 would denounce
My rut; but it was all in lean until 1 bed actually done so.
1 inquired then to whom I ought to go to prefer the 'ces-
sation. And 1 was told 'to the bishop, or the vicar of the
Holy Olin,' and they named yourself to me. Twice already
have 1 been here with the intention of doing what was
milked of me, and as often have 1 recolleched that I was a
mother, and was overwhelmed at the Idea. On Sunday last
I came to year church to pray to the Virgin, the mother of
Christ, to aid me through this difficulty, and I remember that
when I had exited the rosary in her honour, I turned to
pray also to the B,n, saying, "O, Lord Jesus, thou west
also accused before te high priests by a traitorous disciple.
hut thou dile sot permit that thy anther should takepart
in that incaution. Behold, then, I also ea a mother, and,
although my ton is • sinner, whilst thou wort meet just, do
not, 1 implore thee, require that his own mother should be
his unser." Whilst I was making this prayer the mutely:
began. I isquired the preacher's name, and they told me
yours. Deegan to pay attention to the discourse, but I ern
wholly occupied in looking at you, and reelecting, with maim
sighs, that I was under the obligation to accuse to yes my
owe child. la the midst ;of my egitahoo, a though' 1.1.
denly relieved me, I did not see the inquisitor in your maw
tenants. Young, animated, acd with masks of sensibilitY,
it seemed that you would not be too harsh with my eon ; I
thought I would entreat you first to correct him yourself, at
to reprimand and to threaten him, without inflicting actual
punishment upon him."
I shall tot recapitulate say injunctions to this poor woman,
to traequillise her mind wilt respect to having to de nentaill
her sea. I advised her to change her confeemor, and to he
silent with regard to him. Anyhow she was not in fault.
And, if confusion, 1 farther resserked, be a sunniest that
pardons eisa, it mu Mver be made a means of unwarrantably
obtaining informative ea to the wor's or deeds of another.
Suppose, now, that the priest thus applied to had
been the vicar of the " Holy Office," had been acm►
sory to this treason tipsiest nature, he must have
employed argument to persuade the wretched mother
that the horrible set was acceptable to God, and might,
perhaps, have alluded to the sacrifices demanded et
Abraham and Jeplitha, or cited some apposite texts et
Scripture to calm the natural remorse felt by the poet
woman, and so silence the voice by which Heaves
itself was correcting a sin taught in the name of
The following extract shows the mode by which
Mother Church seeks to bring her erring children
repentance is remarkable for the hypocritical at-
tempt to reconcile the maxim " No man is obliged
to accuse himaelf • with the use of the tortare :
11110CEDUILI BISON! Tun INOCISTIOIII.
Concerning the method of cendacting a prongs, I read
Is the Libro Peen as follow' With ninon to SW 41ms
amiaation and the duty of the oreminees, either tlaa
eater aonfesses, and he is proved guilty from his ems sea.
Intim, or he does not confess, is null: guilty on
evidence of winnows. If a primmer enheme the whole ll'
what he is accused, he is unquestioaahly guilty of the whole ;