The Middlebury register. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1850-1882, 1858-05-26
MISCELLANEOUS.
from the N. Y. Courier and Enquirer.
The Romans at Home.
NY 7 u spAirr nrNa


The Romans at Home.
ny J. R. sPAULDING
The very first social popularity that
struck me in Rome was the grand want of
respect for the Clergy. Ecclesiastics in
the street, | Observed no whore received
any of those tokens of regard, so common
ly rendered in other Roman Catholic coun-
tries Even the religious professions bear
! ing holy image, or indeed the sacred host,
itself, | marked, went their way unsaluted
and unnoticed. have since, in the course
Of my stay, visited a hundred different
Churches, and from St. Peters down, ,wheth-
or at mass, at mathis or at vespers, have
almost uniformly found dreary void The
Priests and the Choristers, and old woman
Or two, and perchance a stray peasant
from the country, have alone relieved the
solitude. All is august and imposing, but
the holy incense floats unmatched, the di.
vine symphonies swell unhurt and the sa
cred alters blaze unregarded.
Roman Catholicism finds the fevest faith
ful in the very seat of its faith, and the
coolest disdain in the very centre of its
glory. The doctrnal elements of the re-
ligion are the same every where, but its
spirit and its type vary exceedingly in diff
ferent countries. In all places, except
Rome, it is more OF less modified by civil
institutions, and by popular character but
here it is subject TO no extraneous influence
and free scope is given to all of its worst
tendencies. 1t is not Catholic and liberal
and tolerant, but paptistical and bigotted
and prosecuting. 1t seeks to prevail not
by its own purity and wisdom, but by in
timidation and by charlatanry by
-" relques beads
lndugenees, dispenses, psrdons, bulls"
Adopting the maxim that ignorance is the
mother of devotion it systematically stul-
tifes the human intellect. The people re-
ceve no religious instruction, are allowed
no catechisms, and havG no knowledge of
the elements Of their creed. Tawdry wax
figures representing certain biblical scenes
and exhibited in public booths under the
patronage of the church, afford their most
definite notion of Scripture history, and
the six injunctions Of the Santa Croce--
to pay the tithes, to hear mass on SUNDAYS
and festivals, to keep the fasts, to confess
during Holy Week TO commence at Easter,
and not to marry durni 6 prohibited seasons
constitute their clearest idea of Scripture
ethics. Miracle-working images abound
and innumerable relics are to be seen of
every imaginable category, from the rock
whereon ABRAHAM laid Isaac to be sacri-
feed, to the prints of our Savors feet in
the pavement of the Appin way. No in.
telligent right-minded man can go through
the churches of Rome,'and survey all the
miserable trumpery employed in the name
of Christianity, without the intensest dis
gust and Indignation. But the people of
Rome are not in situation to make all
these means and Appliances successful.
Their constant intercourse with enlightened
foreigners forbids, and they have learned
full well that the purpose is to blind and
degrade them. The natural effect is bitter
anlmosity against the Church, and a rooted
repugnance to the very religion whose
name it bears.
The low intellectual and moral charac-
ter of the priesthood reinforces this hatred
with contempt, The number of ecclesias-
tics of all grades in Rome is about twenty
thousand. Their education is chiefly con.
fined to the scholastic learning of the mid
die ages, and they little appreciate either
the ideas or the doings of modern civiliza.
tion. There are, doubtless, among them
! many pure and devout men, but, if univer-
! sal assertion Is 10 be trusted, the great
majority posses little private worth. Tie
vast wealth Of the Church supports them
in indolence, and, under the grab of re-
hgion, they indulge their lowest appetites
and passions. 1t is as notorious here as
the monday, that the proAigacy which so
foully backens all Rome, has its chief
source in the priesthood, and that the high.
est church dignitaries participate in the
general corruption. Let Que plain fact
suffice to illustrate. In single street
there are now living an illegitimate daueh.
ther of late pope, and seven illegitimate
daughters of cardinals, three of whom are
public prostitutes la honor of my race.
l cannot credit all the depravity charged
upon the Roman ecclesiastics vet L am
forced to conclude that the people of Rome
despise their priesthood for the best of all
haa Al II