New Orleans Republican., 1875-10-03
Incomes Of the Cardinals,

T. Adolphus Troilope, writing from Rome
to the New York Tribune, gives the follow
ing entertaining sketch of the origin of the
colossal palaces of that city, and, incident
ally, of the incomes of the Cardinals, v bo
have devoted themselves to poverty:
A recent circumstance has caused some
what curious computation and revelation
to be ma lie of the incomes enjoyed by sew
eral OF the members of the Sacred College
And | think that after all the shrieks of
dispair and wrath which have go many
months past filed the ears of all mankind
with the lamentations of those purple
fathers of the Church over the "spolia ion"
which has befallen them, the particulars
which am going to give the reader viii
occasion some little surprise. The incident
in question was the subscription by those
Cardinals resident in the Vatican of the
sum of 10000 francs-ab0ut S2e00-tor the
sufferers by the innndation in the South of
France. The subscription is a handsome
one, and their eminences would have
had to submit to the consequence of
letting their lei. hands know very accu-
rately what their right hands were doing,
cheered by the consideration that they were
letting men see their good works, that they
might glorIfy their Father which is in
Heaven, we're it not that the clerical pa
pers, and especially the Voce delt1 Ferita,
raised song of Qualification over this act
of charity performed by men "whO bore
their share in the glorious poverty which
has overwhelmed the Church." This some
what inrpportune vein of laudation set some
of the profaner of the ''ches amang u.s."
who are "takin' notes" with view OF print.
ing them, on the enterprise of inquiring a
little into the particulars of the GLORIOUS
poverty" endured by their eminences OF the
Sacred College, and here following you
have some of the resul of the investiga-
ton. Among the twentyfour cardinals
resident at the apostolic court, four, or five
at the outside, suffer he bitterness of pow
erty entailed by an income of only $4,000
| a year. These are mostly mem
bers of religious orders, whose no.
| tioas of poverty when they vowed their
| lives to the practice of it must have been
| somewhat different one. Passing them by,
| however, we may begin with Cardinal Pa
| trizi, the dean of the Sacred College. He
| is rich man by his own private fortune.
| But beside this he has at least $4,000 as
| Vicar of Rome, and fully as much more
| from sundry simple benefices. Cardinal
| Amat possesses $4,000 year from the
| enormous prebends which he holds, besides
| his own very considerable private estates.
| Cardinal di Pietro draws $4,000 annually
| from the Bishopric of Abano, and as much
| mora from the pension paid TO him by Por-
| tugal. His Eminence Cardinal Sacconi
| Bishop of Palestrina, has revenue OF equal
| amount. Cardinal Asquini, as secretary of
briefs, enjoys yearly income OF $O.OoO
| Cardinal de Lncca's yearly revenue
| has from perquistes and fees alone
| $4,000 a year. OF Cardinal Bpnaparte's
poverty little need be said. Car
| diua Berardi's revenues from eccle-iasticai
| and secular sources exceed 500 600 wear.
Cardinal Franehi receives over $4,000 a
year from the College of the Propaganda,
besides rich pensions payable on certain
| Spanish bishnpricks, as an agreeable
souvenir of Qleen Isabella. Cardinal
Oveglia has $4,000 year. The poverty of
| poor Cardinal Auton4ili is too well known
to need mention. The fees that come to
him on the promotion to the purple and to
all benefees bring him 10 a secure yearly
income of 100000. Caterni and Chigi are
also right we'll provided for. So that upon
the whole the Toce della Ferita's lamenta-
BILE cry of "Pity the poor Cardinals" in
spires us with but a moderate amount of
sympathy.
The perusal of such statement of the
incomes enjoyed by these purple princes of
the church, in these miserable days OF per
secution, pillage and declension from their
high estate, while giving us some faint idea
of what the Sacred College was in their
palmy day, affords an intelligent explana-
| tion of some of the phenomena that strikes
| strangers on first making acquaintan with
| the streets of Rome There is nothing that
| surprises new conner more than the enorm-
Gus rate on which the Roman palaces are
built. Let his expectations have been raised
by previously heard accounts to what
height they may, the reality when seen
| will exceed them. "What could have
been the fortunes which raised such
| colossal plesl' the stranger naturally
asks himself. But few of them date from a
| period anterior 10 the seventeenth century.
Where did the huge sums come from which
it must have cost to raise them, The state
ments given above go some way toward fur
nishing the reply to that question. What
can single men, living for the most part
with only sober and moderate degree of
state, exercising no hospitality save an
occasional reception, when all the upper,
not ten, but perhaps 1000 of the Roman
world were regaled with ices and glasses of
lemonade at the cost of perhaps franc a
head; and cut off by the conditions of their
dignity from most of the costly pursuits in
which other men dissipate their incomes,
what can such men have done with reve.
nues co1nted by the hundred of thousand
francs! The colossal pala ,es of Rome tell
us what they did with their money. They
built the huge edifces which still astonish
strangers, and turn the course of streets
aside, making Rome the most intricate and
crooked-streeted city in the world.