The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1853-04-28

representation OF the prince oil the lnfernhls 1
have ever beheld 1t is said that this is like
ness Of Cardinal pamfli, afterwards innocent
\, on whom Guido took revenge for some criti-
cism by sending bis head and shoulders down
to posterity, by the mere addition of dragons
tail. ITO what base ends may we come at
last
There are several other rather famous pic
lures in this church, but none by which ! was
especially impressed. There are bounds to
ones capacity for Holy Families saints, and
crowded by this class of heavenly visitants, that
there really is not room for another manger or
cell to be put up, another wing to be unfurled.
From the church we descended to the ceme-
terry underneath where one of the most curious
and certainly the most horrible sight ! have
ever beheld, met my eyes. Within four low
thousand monks
When member of this fraternity dies, he is
buried in his coarse brown robe, in the GENE
terry, the earth of which was brought from ye-
rusalem; but, after some months, his bones are
taken up and arranged in a variety Of ways
about the walls Of the cemetery The skele-
tons of the most eminent or holy fathers are
preserved entire and recine ON touches of
the coarse brown robes and cowls they lived
and died and were buried in, and holding 70.
saries and crucfxes All about them ore
bones columns and affairs of skulls-fcstooned
with vertebra, finger and toe joints-ribs made
into crosses-arm-bones and collar bones made
into lamps-leg bones supporting shelves of
shoulder blades and -pans-bones of all
sorts, arranged in all sorts of mathematical
farnaa-auoh oil
On the ceiling overhead, in horrible mockery
of frescoes of smiling Cupids and Ganymedes,
small shining skeletons grin down upon you,
and seem about to strike you dead. To the
robed skeletons in the inches some dried flesh
and portions of skin adhere, and from the chins
of two or three yet depends long grizzly
beard
1t was evidently expected, from the position
in which these defunct fathers are placed, that
they would wear look of devotion, or pious
meditation but the attempt has not been alto
gether successful Expression varies in these
death s-heads quite as much as in living faces.
For instance, there is one who seems chuckling
with sly merriment under his worm eaten
cowl-one who has a foxy look of cruelty and
cunning-one who seems to have died cursing
and one who seems to have never died at all,
shading his face, his beard on his breast, and
his mouth open looks simply like an emaciated,
macerated old monk, sound asleep and
snoring.
This underground cemetery is so small and
ill-ventilated - the earth above the buried
monks seems 80 light that one feels that the
air must be surcharged with pestilence and
death. Yet the monks perform masses there,
wander and mediate there - breathe in the
musty atmosphere of the bones of the long-de-
parted ten thousand, and the exhalstions from
the uncofiined bodies of the lately-departed ten.
How strange it must be for them to oontem-
plate the certain disposition Of their own poor
remains--their skulls labeled and packed in
arches, and their bones builded and wreathed
into CHASTITY ornaments. Perhaps old friends
talk to one another in this wise "You will see,
! Brsthor Anssl6ao, That they do not scatter my
| bones too much---yOu yourself will place my
skull where you can come and see it some
times"
| % one night in the year this cemetery is
| illuminated. Can you imagine a scene more
grandly horrible From yellow lamps and
swinging chandeliers of bones, the CHASTITY
light cleaning on graves and skeletons-hash
ing on polished skulls, and searching into thou
sands on thousands Of eyeless sockets! Thinl
of the awful shadows lurking in the archie
and about the inches where lie or stand tn,
dead monks robed and cowled Think o
masses being said here, and penitential psalms
sent wailing through these crowded courts Of
Death Think of professions of dark gowned
long bearded monks, passing slowly through
while the cowled heads of the skeletons nod,
and the lamps swing, and oil the small bones
| rattle ct their tread
must confess that, fearful and disgusting as
it was, the sight of those old monks half-skele-
| tons halfmummes, had for me sort of hor-
| rible fascination. Loathsome paraders rather
than solemn Heachers of decay and mortality,
they yet are full of the peculiar humanity half
| dead when most alive, Of their order. With
out their robes you would know them for
monks. They look dark and secret and hum
| BILE, with an indestructible air of paternity.
had & strange feeling that they not only re-
garded me, but one another, and half be-
lieved that at night, when they should have
the place all to themselves, they would talk to
each other, in husky and sepulchral voices Of
the past glory and present decay of the
Church--of matters that concern their order
of the sanctity and severity of its founders, and
of tho laxity and imbecility which have crept
into it in these degenerate days-and, per-
chance, lament solemnly and piteously together
the good old times when Popes planted their
feet ON the necks of Emperors, and the flames,
and racks, and oubliettes of the Inquisition
were in full play.
But perhaps | do the cowled mummers
wrong-one and all may have been mild, in
offensive, and charitable given to fasting,
prayer, and ministrations Of mercy among the
poor--men who shut the glory of the world
and tho light of human joy from their cloister-
ed lives that the pure lamp Of divine truth
might shine more clearly there-shut out the
sounds Of human struggle and pleasure, tina.
the heavenly voices might steal on the solemn
stillness--Inen in whom the love Of God abound
cd, and who were not wanting in loving kind
ness for all His creatures.
Among the thousands of priests monks, and
friars, whom meet in Italy, sometimes re-
mark form Of gracious and manly charsc.
ter, and noble and sanity head, borne with
that true humility which Is the highest digni-
ty-a face, thoughtful without severity, gentle
without weakness, wakeful and earnest with
out cunning or fanaticism. There arc few
whom you thus recognise at once as Christ's
ministers--poor and selfdenying, meek and
gentle and sorrowiul--going about doing good,
among the sick, the imprisoned, and the afict-
ed Such are the true holy (athers--for the
blessing of such would kneel as readily az the
devoutest Catholic in the land. But as far as
can judge by observation, there are few of
this class-the greater part are nnintellectual,
inferior, repulsive- looking men. Many are
gross, many gloomy hopeless, and utterly alb
Iect in expression. The monastic orders es-
pccialIy seem soulless and decaycd-the life of
letters, which Of old was their peculiar strength
and glory, having departed from them.
We are told that the Church should be pre-
served and revered for what she has been in
the far past-for having served as the sole
asylum Of learning during the dark ages, when
foods Of barbarian were sweeping over the
earth. But we de not read that the patriarch
Noah was commanded to preserve the old hulk
of the ark which bore the elect of humanity
sLa,.e dsasxnad ,zzoxld a suGhiah eisaiad